Soil shipped from Calvary during the Crusades is said to lie within the white walls of this hauntingly beautiful resting place for many prominent Pisans, arranged around a garden in a cloistered quadrangle. During WWII, Allied artillery destroyed many of the cloisters' frescoes, but several have been salvaged and restored. Most notable are Inferno and Triumph of Death (both 1336–41), remarkable illustrations of Hell attributed to 14th-century painter Buonamico Buffalmacco; find them immediately to the right of the main entrance (second and fourth frescoes), in the southern cloister.
Fortunately, the mirrors once stuck next to the graphic images of the damned being roasted alive on spits have been removed – originally, viewers would have seen their own faces in the horrific scene. The explanatory panel in front of the first fresco, right of the entrance, includes a floor plan (with evocative descriptions in English) of the entire line-up of frescoes in the southern cloister; those in the northern cloister have not been restored.
