Sinopie Museum

When fire swept the Camposanto in 1944, restorers lifted the damaged frescoes from the walls and found the sinopie beneath: full-size preparatory drawings brushed onto the first layer of plaster in a red earth pigment. They have been shown here since 1979, and they are rare survivals, because so few drawings by medieval masters remain. You can follow the hands of Buffalmacco, Taddeo Gaddi, Piero di Puccio and Benozzo Gozzoli at a scale no sketchbook could hold.

The museum fills the great hall of a former hospital on the south side of the square, built between 1257 and 1286 to a design by Giovanni di Simone, who also began the Camposanto. For almost seven centuries it cared for the poor, pilgrims and the sick, and its long, high space suits the giant drawings.