Pisa Baptistery

Diotisalvi began the Baptistery of San Giovanni on 15 August 1152, and his name is still carved on one of its pillars. Building went on for more than a century, with later work by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, so the round marble drum rises from Romanesque arcades to Gothic gables. At almost 55 metres high and 107 metres round, it is the largest baptistery in Italy. Galileo was baptised here.

Inside, Nicola Pisano's pulpit of 1260, its carved scenes drawing on Roman sculpture, became a model for pulpits across Italy. Guido Bigarelli da Como worked on the octagonal font, made for baptism by immersion, and behind it lies a 13th-century floor of inlaid coloured marble. Every 30 minutes the attendant on duty sings a few notes, and the double dome turns them into a long, layered echo. A spiral staircase climbs to the upper gallery for a view down over the font.