San Giovanni

... nel mio bel San Giovanni.

(Inferno XIX.17)

... in my beautiful San Giovanni.

---

The Baptistry of San Giovanni, where Dante and nearly all the other famous medieval Florentines were baptized, is one of the very few examples of Romanesque architecture in the city. For hundreds of years, people believed in the ancient legend that it was originally built upon a Roman temple dedicated to Mars. Indeed, many believed that the Roman god was portrayed by a well-worn equestrian statue that, when moved to the north end of Ponte Vecchio when the temple became a Christian church, made him angry and, ultimately vengeful.

In 1895, however, archeologists discovered beneath the Baptistry the remains of Roman houses from about the 1st century AD. Scholars are divided with regard to the date of the Baptistry’s construction, but there is no proof that it was built over an earlier Roman temple. The earliest extant mention of it calls it a church and dates it to 897, but some believe it was built as early as the 4th-5th century and others believe it to be a few centuries younger. At any rate, some of its marble was recycled from earlier buildings in Florence’s forum (where Piazza della Repubblica now stands). The example in the photo below portrays a Roman seafaring scene (near the base of the Baptistry’s northeast side) that probably once decorated a tomb or ossuary.

San Giovanni was severely damaged by a fire in 1177, but by 1293 the last unfinished bits were restored in marble. Dante saw it when its exterior seemed brand new. The area around the baptistry, then mostly grass and dirt, was a cemetery over which loomed a tower known as the Guardamorto (now replaced by the Bigallo). The last sarcophagi were removed in 1288 in order to modernize the piazza. It was among these tombs that Boccaccio imagined the curious encounter between Guido Cavalcanti and Betto Brunelleschi in Decameron 6.9.

Inside, the mosaic cycle of the Last Judgment (the large figure of Christ and the panels on each side of it) was completed between 1260 and 1270, so the sinners here cast down and the blessed who are saved were no doubt imprinted on Dante’s mind from his earliest memories.

Above: Coppo di Marcovaldo, Last Judgment (ca. 1265-70), detail