Battistero di San Giovanni

This guide to the Battistero di San Giovanni in Pisa traces two centuries of construction, from Diotisalvi's plain Romanesque drum begun in eleven fifty-two to the pointed Gothic tier added later by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, a mismatch nobody planned. It also follows Nicola Pisano's marble pulpit, carved in twelve sixty with nude figures borrowed from Roman sarcophagi, credited as a turning point in Italian sculpture. Stand in the center of the room and listen for how the domed ceiling turns a single held note into something closer to a chord.