Parish Church San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno - Pisa

The Church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno is a Catholic place of worship in Pisa on the Arno River, in the square of the same name. It is also known as the Old Cathedral, although this is a legend. At the back is the chapel of Sant'Agata.
It is counted among the masterpieces of the Romanesque architecture of Pisa and was founded before the year 1000, in the 9th or 10th century, and there are testimonies of it from 1032. It belonged to the monks of Saint Benedict.

Towards the end of the 12th century the cloisters were completed, articulated around two cloisters, one on the south side and the other behind the apse, as well as the chapel of St. Agatha. The latter is all that remains after the damage caused by the bombings of the Second World War, after which the cloister, together with the bell tower, was finally demolished.

Several restorations were carried out in the 19th century, but the building suffered extensive damage during the Second World War and was therefore restored again between 1949 and 1952; as a result of post-war interventions, the cloisters, cloister, bell tower and most of the buildings adjacent to the church were demolished, with the chapel of Sant'Agata being the only remaining structure.1

On the outside, Roman marble has been reused in the marble cladding with two-tone bands, which, however, do not follow the entire perimeter of the church, suggesting the presence of the adjacent, now-vanished monastic complex of monks on the south side of the building.

The baptismal font, stoup and sculpture depicting the baptism of Christ are modern additions. Worth mentioning, however:

Roman sarcophagus from the 4th century, with in the center the effigy of the two consorts buried there, which has been reused as a medieval tomb to bury Burgundio, a well-known jurist of the time.

Willem Vandenameele