Chiesa di San Sisto (Church of Saint Sixtus), Pisa

Church of Saint Sixtus is one of Pisa’s historic Romanesque churches, consecrated in 1133 and closely connected with the early civic life of the Pisan commune. Even before its formal consecration, the church served as the setting for some of the city’s most important notarial acts, giving it a role that was both religious and political.

Built in stone in the Pisan-Romanesque style, the church has a simple but elegant façade divided into three sections by pilaster strips. In the upper part, a mullioned window and a row of arches continue around the exterior, creating the rhythmic decoration typical of medieval Pisa. One of its most distinctive features is the use of Islamic ceramic basins, or bacini, set into the walls—today replaced by copies, with the originals preserved in Pisa’s Museum of San Matteo.

Inside, San Sisto has a nave and two aisles separated by columns topped with ancient Roman capitals, a reminder of how medieval builders reused classical materials. The hut-shaped wooden ceiling adds to the church’s austere atmosphere. Among its notable objects are an Arabic tombstone, a copy of a 14th-century Madonna and Child, and the rudder of a 13th- or 14th-century Pisan galley, linking the church to Pisa’s maritime past.