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San Matteo National Museum

The Museum presents the artistic history of Pisa, fully integrated into a European and Mediterranean context, with works from the 12th to the 17th century by Pisan, Tuscan, and other artists, created primarily for the city's churches and convents. It exhibits one of the most important collections of medieval art, as well as archaeological finds, Islamic ceramic basins, illuminated manuscripts, and a rich numismatic series. Also of enormous significance are the works by the leading masters of the 15th century, from Gentile da Fabriano to Fra Angelico, and from Masaccio to Donatello.

SAN MATTEO NATIONAL MUSEUM

The San Matteo National Museum is housed in the ancient Benedictine monastery of San Matteo in Soarta (dating back to the 11th century), of which it preserves the splendid quadrangular cloister and evocative historical atmosphere. The complex houses an artistic collection of inestimable value, considered fundamental at a European level for the study and understanding of medieval art and beyond.
The exhibition path develops chronologically, offering a complete overview of Pisa's cultural flowering during the centuries of its maximum republican and maritime power. Among the most famous highlights is the extraordinary collection of medieval painted crosses (including the renowned Cross No. 20 of the Pisan-Byzantine school), which document the crucial transition from Christus triumphans to Christus patiens, inaugurating the modern sensibility of Western art.
The sculpture section boasts masterpieces in stone and marble by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, pillars of the Gothic renewal, the original external decoration of the church of the Spina, along with delicate 14th-century wooden sculptures and the famous "Reliquary of Saint Rossore" (1422-1425), a masterpiece in gilded bronze executed by Donatello. The picture gallery is equally impressive: the rooms host capital works of Italian painting, with panels created by Giunta Pisano, Simone Martini, Francesco Traini, Masaccio (Saint Paul from the famous Pisa Polyptych), Fra Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano, and Ghirlandaio. The museum's heritage is completed by a very rich section dedicated to medieval ceramics (the Islamic and Mediterranean basins that decorated the external walls of the city's churches), a coin collection, and a collection of illuminated manuscripts. San Matteo confirms itself as an absolute treasure chest of art, where the history of the city intertwines with the heights of Mediterranean artistic creativity.