The Church
The church of San Jacopo in Lupeta is sited across the mountainside, immersed among the green olive groves marking the surrounding landscape.
Most evocative, the beautiful Romanesque edifice was built using perfectly squared materials, marked by their dichromatic effects.
What makes this construction special is the matching of its monastic structural features, such as the T-shaped plan, with decorative patterns inspired to the Pisan cathedral, such as lozenges. The church is sided by an imposing, pre-existing bell tower, once used as a watch tower, and a 19th-century villa that replaced the earlier monastic facilities.
Pulled down during World War II, the campanile was partially rebuilt by anastylosis upon a project by the Soprintendente Piero Sanpaolesi.
A path among the olive groves leads to the nearby church of S.Andrea in Buscione, now commonly known as S.Andrea in Silva and making part of a private property.
Description »
The church presents the typical T-layout of monastic orders. The apse is missing and unsupported by any archive or graphic documentation or information. It is known that, at the end of the 18th century, the counter-façade area had posed serious static issues, due to the sloping nature of the ground. Works carried out under the engineer Sanpaolesi, in the 1950’s, finally allowed to consolidate the ground and to rebuild the facility.
The church façade is horizontally divided by a string-course and presents a distinct vertical orientation, marked by four pilasters.
Although it was reworked during the second post-war period, the right side reveals the signs of pre-existing structures once set against the church – probably a portico or a cloister.
A strongly dichromatic masonry appears on the left side, showing traces of stone working performed using different tools, likely suggesting the co-presence of different builders within the same construction works.
The bell tower, built in a less specialized masonry, was probably earlier and employed as a watch tower to guard the territory.
In its original forms, the church was built using a perfect construction technique in Caprona rubble dimension stone and black schists.
The interiors are marked by a most sober style and by the occurrence of a few niches used as lamp-holders, to light the church during the nightly prayers.
History »
Initially dedicated to San Mamiliano, the church existence was first reported in the 8th century as belonging to a monastic complex of private origin. A document states that the founder, a certain Rotperto, donated the church to Andrea, bishop of Pisa.
Following such donation, the site lost its monastic function, progressively assuming the features of a parsonage. In the 14th century, the church was entrusted to the Augustinian Order.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the property of the complex passed under the Chapter of Pescia Cathedral, until the second half of the 19th century, when either the church and the monastic facilities were alienated to private owners.
Works »
Two slabs sculpted in bas-relief were walled on the façade and inside the church; their datation and interpretation are still uncertain. They might be two reused pieces salvaged from the pre-existing monastic church, hence they are dated between the 8th and the 10th centuries. The characters portrayed on the external slab were interpreted as prophets, identified as Daniel, Habakkuk and Job. The slab placed in the interior, on the contrary, may be interpreted as a symbolic depiction of Christ’s passion and of the fight between Christ and Satan.
The lintel of the central portal, sculpted with vegetal motifs, is surmounted by a horseshoe lunette. A bull’s head was sculpted on the corbel of a pilaster on the façade.
Inside the transept are traces of frescoes dating from the 14th century: these are mainly portraits of saints, among which the bishop San Mamiliano may be recognized; the church was initially dedicated to him.
A few scholars theorized an attribution to the Pisan painter Neruccio di Federigo.
The transept also conserves traces of an older fresco, dating from late 11th- early 12th century, depicting three characters. The work is attributed to an unknown master of Pisan school.
Restorations »
During World War II, the bell tower was bombed, hence it partially crumbled over the church.
Between 1951 and 1968, the Soprintendenza architect Piero Sanpaolesi started an intense restoration work campaign on the complex of Lupeta, to fix the roofs, rebuild the back side of the church in brickwork, repair the masonry, reopen the single-light windows and remove the 19th-century superfetations. The bell tower was rebuilt by anastylosis, reusing the original materials.
Sanpaolesi left a precious manuscript diary about these works in the historic archive of the Soprintendenza of Pisa, complete with a few interesting sketches about the way to carry them out.
Bibliography »
A. Del Chiaro, S. Renzoni, F. Trombi, Vicopisano. Il patrimonio culturale, Pisa, Pacini, 2000.
M. L. Ceccarelli Lemut, S. Renzoni, S. Sodi, Chiese di Pisa 2. Guida alla conoscenza del patrimonio artistico, Pisa, ETS, 2001.
A. Martini, L. Benassi, Pisa. Capolavori della fede, Pontedera, CLD, 2005.
M. Burresi, A. Caleca, Affreschi medievali a Pisa, Pisa, Pacini, 2003.
Location
