Until people started getting excited about the Leaning tower around 1900, the big attraction in Pisa was its dreamy and exquisite cemetery, the Camposanto (built from 1278-1465). Highlights are the building’s cloistered interior courtyard, some ancient sarcophagi, and the large 14th-century fresco, The Triumph of Death.
The delightful open-air courtyard is surrounded by an arcade with intricately carved tracery in the arches. The courtyard’s grass grows on special dirt shipped here by returning 12th-century Crusaders from Jerusalem’s Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified. If you couldn’t be buried in the Holy Land, you could be buried in dirt from the holy land.
Displayed in the arcade are dozens of ancient Roman Sarcophagi. These coffins, which originally held dead Romans, were reused by medieval big shots. In anticipation of death, a wealthy Pisan would shop around, choose a good sarcophagus, and chip his message into it. When he died, his marble box was placed with the others around the exterior of the cathedral. Great sculptors such as Nicola and Giovanni Pisano passed them daily, gaining inspiration.
After decorating these corridors for 600 years, the frescoes of Camposanto Cemetery were badly damaged in World War II. They’ve been under restoration ever since.
Along these walls, you ‘ll see the ones that have been returned to their original position, including the masterpiece The Triumph of Death. This 1,000-square-foot fresco (c.1340, by a 14th-century master) captures late-medieval Europe’s concern with death in a fascinating composition.
In the lower left, a parade of wealthy (finely dressed) and powerful (some with crowns) hedonists are riding gaily through the countryside when they come across a hermit-monk who blocks their path and shows them three corpses in coffins. Confronted with death, they each react differently – a woman puts her hand thoughtfully on her chin, a man holds his nose against the stench, while a horse leans in for a better whiff. Above them, a monk scours the Bible for the meaning of death. Elsewhere, young people gather in a garden to play music (symbolizing earthly pleasure), oblivious to the death around them.
This is just one of four big frescoes: Next to The Triumph of Death are The Last Judgement, the extremely graphic Hell, and The Pious Life (a handbook for avoiding hell).