Church San Frediano - Pisa

The church, mentioned as early as 1061, was originally also dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours and it had a hospital attached to it for the care of pilgrims and the needy.

In 1784, the church became a parish church, encompassing the territory of that of the Madonna dei Galletti and Saints Felice and Regolo. It has been a university church since 1999.

In the 20th century, the church underwent two major restorations: the first, in 1921, involved the reclassification of the side chapels; the second, completed in 1964, was aimed at restoring the original Romanesque forms.

On the outside, the church is characterized by its striking facade with the typical decorations of the Pisan architecture of the time, which Buscheto applied to the sides of the Pisa Cathedral (blind arches, windows, two-tone decoration).

The interior has a basilica structure with three naves and eight bays.

Eight side chapels open along the smaller naves. In the first, on the left, is a cast and painted crucifix from the mid-12th century and several paintings by Ventura Salimbeni depicting episodes from the Legenda Aure. The second is dedicated to the martyrs Lorenzo and Gaetano, with an altar by Giovan Battista Stagi (1652). In the third (dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, originally to Saint Charles Borromeo) hang two more canvases by Salimbeni, the Annunciation (left) and the Adoration of the Shepherds, both from about 1607, while along the walls of the left aisle two paintings hang by Ranieri Borghetti, depicting Saints Paul and Bartholomew and Saint Paul in glory, both from the first half of the 17th century.

In the first chapel on the right is the baptismal font of Mario Bertini (1953), in red porphyry. This is followed by the Chapel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, where a polychrome painted wooden statue of the Madonna from the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the following century can be seen. The third chapel, under the altar of which lie the remains of Blessed Bartolomeo Aiutamicristo, is dedicated to Saint Francis. Along the walls of the right aisle are two paintings: The Adoration of the Magi by Aurelio Lomi (1604) and Saint Charles Borromeo Praying to the Madonna by Clement Bocciardo (between 1639 and 1658).

Four stone confessionals line the walls of the two naves, and of particular note is the imposing funerary monument of Giovanni Battista Ruschi (professor of philosophy, medicine and anatomy in Pisa in the 17th century), halfway up the right aisle, dating from 1753.

At the end of the aisles, on either side of the apse, there are two more chapels: the one on the right is dedicated to St. Paul's Apostle (with on the right wall a 17th-century painting of the Madonna and Child between St. Michael and St. Saint Augustine from the Pisa region), while the left one is dedicated to Saint Bridget of Sweden. The altar contains an altarpiece depicting Saint Bridget tempted by the devil by Alessandro Tiarini (c. 1610); by the same author are those on the side walls, on the left St. Bridget welcomes a novice and on the right Miracle at the Tomb of St. Bridget (both ca. 1607), while the fresco in the cupola depicting God the Father in glory between angels by Rutilio Manetti (1612).

Willem Vandenameele