Description
The Church of San Bartolomeo in Pantano is one of the oldest churches in Pistoia: founded as a Lombard abbey in the 8th century, it still has its 12th-century Romanesque look, with a five-arched façade and a bare stone interior. Inside it keeps a 13th-century pulpit and a large Christ painted in the apse.
The façade is marked out by five arches on slender columns, edged with bands of white and green marble, like a mock portico. At the corners and around the central arch sit stone lions: two hold a man and a basilisk under their paws.
Over the main portal, the architrave attributed to Gruamonte shows Christ among the apostles, with Thomas touching his side to believe in the Resurrection. It bears the date 1167 and the name of the patron, a certain Rodolfino.
The three-aisled interior is bare and atmospheric, with a cocciopesto floor and walls of squared stone. In the apse, on a blue ground, the Christ in Majesty among saints and angels dominates, painted at the end of the 13th century and attributed to Manfredino di Alberto.
The pulpit by Guido da Como, carved in the mid-13th century, is one of the highlights of medieval sculpture in Pistoia; other panels, by another master, are now set into the wall.
The wooden crucifix on the high altar is by a sculptor close to the style of Giovanni Pisano. Among the altarpieces, the Madonna and Child with Saints by Giovanni Maria Butteri, from 1596, stands out and is considered one of his masterpieces.
The church was founded between 726 and 764 by the Lombard physician Gaidoaldo, just outside the walls. The “pantano”, the marsh in its name, was the muddy ground here, linked to the shifting course of the Brana stream.
The ancient atmosphere of the interior is partly the work of restoration. Between 1951 and 1961 centuries of additions were removed: the stone walls were uncovered, the narrow windows reopened and the apse paintings rediscovered.
On 24 August, the saint's feast day, comes one of the city's most heartfelt festivals. For centuries children have been anointed on the forehead to protect them from spirits, today also against sore throats; and people sell “corone”, necklaces of shortcrust pastry with a big medallion in the middle.
Don't miss
• Gruamonte's architrave.
• The Christ in Majesty in the apse.
• Guido da Como's pulpit.
• Giovanni Maria Butteri's altarpiece.
Did you know?
• Between the 15th and 18th centuries the abbey passed from the Benedictines to the Lateran canons, known as “Rocchettini”, and then to the Vallombrosans, before becoming a parish in 1810.
The façade is marked out by five arches on slender columns, edged with bands of white and green marble, like a mock portico. At the corners and around the central arch sit stone lions: two hold a man and a basilisk under their paws.
Over the main portal, the architrave attributed to Gruamonte shows Christ among the apostles, with Thomas touching his side to believe in the Resurrection. It bears the date 1167 and the name of the patron, a certain Rodolfino.
The three-aisled interior is bare and atmospheric, with a cocciopesto floor and walls of squared stone. In the apse, on a blue ground, the Christ in Majesty among saints and angels dominates, painted at the end of the 13th century and attributed to Manfredino di Alberto.
The pulpit by Guido da Como, carved in the mid-13th century, is one of the highlights of medieval sculpture in Pistoia; other panels, by another master, are now set into the wall.
The wooden crucifix on the high altar is by a sculptor close to the style of Giovanni Pisano. Among the altarpieces, the Madonna and Child with Saints by Giovanni Maria Butteri, from 1596, stands out and is considered one of his masterpieces.
The church was founded between 726 and 764 by the Lombard physician Gaidoaldo, just outside the walls. The “pantano”, the marsh in its name, was the muddy ground here, linked to the shifting course of the Brana stream.
The ancient atmosphere of the interior is partly the work of restoration. Between 1951 and 1961 centuries of additions were removed: the stone walls were uncovered, the narrow windows reopened and the apse paintings rediscovered.
On 24 August, the saint's feast day, comes one of the city's most heartfelt festivals. For centuries children have been anointed on the forehead to protect them from spirits, today also against sore throats; and people sell “corone”, necklaces of shortcrust pastry with a big medallion in the middle.
Don't miss
• Gruamonte's architrave.
• The Christ in Majesty in the apse.
• Guido da Como's pulpit.
• Giovanni Maria Butteri's altarpiece.
Did you know?
• Between the 15th and 18th centuries the abbey passed from the Benedictines to the Lateran canons, known as “Rocchettini”, and then to the Vallombrosans, before becoming a parish in 1810.