Excavations of the San Sisto church in Pisa: the news
Important news arrives from the countryside of the Roman period2022 in the garden near the church of San Sisto, in the center of Pisa, with finds of the city up to the reconstruction of the topography in Roman times and little known especially in the urban area. In particular, the excavations have made it possible to bring to light some sections of a portico dating from the mid-1st to the early 2nd century AD, which, in the uncovered part, overlooked the Arno. The structure, enriched with frescoes, mosaics and marble cladding elements of Mediterranean import, could have belonged to a public building or a large domus, confirming however that an important sector of the city was located in that area.
The results of the excavations were presented on Friday 16 September by Federico Cantini, professor of Christian and Medieval Archeology and scientific director of the excavations, by the director of the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge, Simone Collavini; and by the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Pisa, Monsignor Giovanni Paolo Benotto.
Started in 2020 and funded by the Excellence Project of the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge of the University of Pisa – thanks to the permission granted by the Curia of Pisa, owner of the area, and the support of the Municipality of Pisa – the excavation involves every year Department among the archaeologists and students of the same Department. The goal is to identify the remains of the early medieval urban royal court (7th-10th century) and any pre-existing Roman structures. So far it has made it possible to unearth over 500 cases of artifacts, datable between the 7th century BC and the modern age, which tell the story of this part of the city of Pisa from the Etruscan age to today.
In the work, the archaeologists are supported by anthropologists, who are excavating and studying the burials found in the area in order to reconstruct the life of the women and men who lived in the city between the seventh and fifteenth centuries.
“Of great scientific importance for the reconstruction of the ancient and early medieval city – explains Professor Cantini – is the building from the Roman era, which was abandoned during the sixth century to then be occupied by a tomb in the Lombard period: in particular, burials of children emerged, with necklaces made with glass paste, and a fragment of a golden cross, of the type that was sewn on the shroud of the deceased ”.
With the full seventh century the portico and the structure to which it was to be connected, located under the church of San Sisto, were reoccupied to make it the center of public power of the Lombard and Carolingian age. This is the early medieval royal court which, in addition to a stone building, probably the room mentioned in written documents, where legal disputes were settled, provided for a storage area for agricultural products, equipped with silos, and, at least from the middle of the ‘VIII century, a church, the one that after 1027 will be remembered as San Pietro in Corte Vecchia.
The latter toponym tells us about the abandonment of the center by the beginning of the 11th century.
At the end of the same century the current church of San Sisto was built (1087), which will become the ‘public church’ of the Municipality of Pisa, which will have its patronage. The building was equipped, during the first half of the 12th century, with a cloister, delimited by mighty walls, whose foundations were found in the excavation together with the tombs which, starting from the middle of the same century, went to be placed in its internal. These are single burials and large brick chests, probably referable to family tombs.
A last event that the nomination of the structures is represented by the Florentine conquest of the early fifteenth century, which led to the total destruction of the cloister and its dispossession. From the fifteenth century the area became a garden and a vegetable garden adjacent to the church of San Sisto.
On Friday 30 September, as part of BRIGHT Night, and on 4 and 6 October, some guided tours to the excavation aimed at all citizens.
The shifts, each of which can accommodate no more than 15 people, are:
– 30 September, 4 shifts at 10.00, 11.30, 14.30, 16.00;
– 4 October, 2 shifts at 10.00 and 11.30;
– 6 October, 2 shifts at 10.00 and 11.30.
To participate, a reservation is required, to be made via e-mail by writing to labarcheologiamedievale @ gmail.