Church of Santa Maria del Carmine

Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine (M. Del Rosso, Comune di Pisa)

In front of the nineteenth-century façade stands the statue of Nicola Pisano, architect and master sculptor of the Italian thirteenth century, made by Salvino Salvini in 1862, originally located in the Campo Santo. The inside of the church is a large single hall about 70 meters long, full of seventeenth-century altars that house works such as the Madonna in glory and saints by Aurelio Lomi and the Ascension of Christ by Alessandro Allori, first and second altar on the left, the Annunciation by Andrea Boscoli and the Assumption of the Virgin by Santi di Tito, first and second altar on the right. The church preserved the polyptych of Pisa (1427), a work by Masaccio commissioned to the artist by the Pisan notary Ser Giuliano di Colino degli Scarsi from San Giusto. The large composition was removed from the altar, disassembled and sold. Today in Pisa only the St. Paul is preserved, in the National Museum of San Matteo.

History in a nutshell: built between 1324 and 1326, it was one of the first Carmelite churches in Europe, an order already present in the city in the church of Sant'Apollinare in Barbaricina. It underwent numerous restorations during the seventeenth century. The adjoining monastery still retains traces of medieval elements, such as the beautiful cloister. Unfortunately, it was heavily damaged during the Second World War and the concrete trussed roof is clear evidence of this.

Peace in the cloister: near the sacristy we can enter the fourteenth-century cloister, recently restored. Some traces of frescoes with Lives of the Carmelite Saints and of Jesus testify to the medieval wealth of the site. In the rooms of the sacristy there are traces of frescoes by Giovanni from Milan and Turino Vanni (14th-15th century). On the south side is the funeral monument of Tiziano Asperti, made by Felice Palma in 1607. The structure suffered numerous damages during the disastrous flood of 1870, recalled by a marble slab.