The interior of the Camposanto, Pisa

This unfinished panel shows the interior of the cemetery of Camposanto Monumentale, at the northern edge of the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa. The Camposanto is said to have been built on holy soil brought back from Golgotha by Ubaldo Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa in 1203. The interior of the cemetery contains Etruscan, Roman and Medieval funerary art objects, including a large collection of sarcophagi. The walls of the cemetery were once covered in renowned frescoes that were widely ***touristed***, among them Francesco Traini, Benozzo Gozzoli, Andrea Bonaiuti, and Taddeo Gaddi. On 27 July 1944, a bomb fragment from an Allied raid started a fire that tragically damaged the contents of the cemetery, destroying many of the sculptures and sarcophagi and compromising all of the frescoes. The present panel is a poignant record of the interior of the monument as it was before the devastation.