Why are there two medieval copies of the holy sepulcher in Pisa? A comparative analysis of San Sepolcro and the Baptistery

Multiple cities in the Middle Ages built architectural copies of monuments from the Holy sites in Jerusalem. Unusually, the city of Pisa founded not one but two architectural representations of a single Jerusalem prototype—the Holy Sepulcher’s Rotunda of the Resurrection. Both Pisan homages were begun in the twelfth century. The foundation of these monuments—a baptistery and a pilgrimage church—was influenced by Pisa’s participation in the First Crusade and by the presence of Hospitaller Knights in Pisa, two factors that are key to the following analysis. In this paper I present each building separately, question why these two monumental “Holy Sepulchers” were built in Pisa in the twelfth century, and what (if any) was their association with each other.