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Camposanto Monumentale

Pisa's marble-walled medieval cemetery, once covered in frescoes, its 1944 fire bomb damage revealing hidden sinopie sketches.

  • Pisa
  • Monument
Plan your visitSee tours
Where
Piazza del Duomo, Pisa
Best for
Buffalmacco's Triumph of Death frescoes
Allow
45 minutes
Tickets
From €10
Checked September 2026

Camposanto Monumentale is the long, marble-walled cemetery that closes the north side of Pisa's Piazza dei Miracoli, built from 1277 by Giovanni di Simone to gather graves that had previously been scattered loose around the cathedral. Legend holds its inner earth was shipped from Golgotha during the Crusades, which made burial here especially prized among medieval Pisans. Its cloistered galleries once held one of Italy's great fresco cycles, including Buonamico Buffalmacco's harrowing Triumph of Death and Last Judgment, painted after the Black Death of 1348. A bombing raid in 1944 set the roof on fire, melting lead and badly damaging the frescoes; the disaster inadvertently revealed the underdrawings, called sinopie, preserved beneath and now displayed in a dedicated museum next door, a rare case where wartime destruction uncovered a whole new layer of art history.

Founded in 1277 for graves previously scattered around Pisa Cathedral, Camposanto developed a major fresco cycle. The 1944 air raid and fire began the recovery work that exposed the sinopie now held at the separate Sinopie Museum.

The long white marble wall of the Camposanto Monumentale across the lawn of Piazza dei Miracoli, with its single door
A blind arcade in pale marble closes the north side of the piazza, with a single door and a Gothic tabernacle above it.
Sources and citations (3)
  1. Opera della Primaziale PisanaCamposantoRead source
  2. Comune di PisaPiazza del DuomoCamposanto fresco cyclesRead source
  3. UNESCO World Heritage CentrePiazza del Duomo, PisaRead source

Look closer

The grass court of the Camposanto Monumentale between two long Gothic marble galleries
The cloister gardenTwo long galleries of Gothic tracery frame a lawn said to rest on earth from Golgotha.
The long gallery of the Camposanto with tall Gothic windows, Roman sarcophagi and carved tomb slabs in the marble floor
The gallery floorStep carefully: the marble floor is a carpet of carved tomb slabs, with Roman sarcophagi lined along the wall.
A Roman marble sarcophagus with carved flutes and a temple door on a console bracket against a weathered wall
A Roman sarcophagusRoman marble coffins, some reused for medieval Pisan burials, stand along the galleries.

Five things worth finding

If you see nothing else, see these.

  1. Triumph of DeathBuonamico Buffalmacco (attr.)

    Noble hunters stumble on three open coffins while angels and demons fight over souls, a painted reckoning made in the years after the Black Death.Fresco cycle on the cloister walls

  2. Last Judgment and HellBuonamico Buffalmacco (attr.)

    A crowded, inventive vision of the damned, with a gigantic Satan devouring sinners, that Dante’s readers would have recognized at once.Beside the Triumph of Death

  3. ThebaidBuonamico Buffalmacco (attr.)

    The life of the desert hermits in small, often humorous scenes, a gentler counterpart to the horrors beside it.Part of the same fresco cycle

  4. Roman sarcophagi

    Carved Roman marble coffins, some reused for medieval Pisan burials, that once crowded the cathedral’s flanks.Along the galleries

  5. Museo delle Sinopie

    The red underdrawings peeled from the walls after the 1944 fire, a rare look at a fresco artist’s first thoughts.On the opposite side of Piazza dei Miracoli

Plan your visit

Everything you need before you go.

Tickets
From €10
Booking
No booking needed
Time needed
45 minutes
Best time
Late afternoon, once the Leaning Tower crowds thin and the cloister light turns warm.
Getting there
Piazza dei Miracoli sits a walk from Pisa Centrale station, or a short bus ride (LAM Rossa line); the historic center largely restricts private cars.
Accessibility
The cloister walkways are flat and largely step-free, making it one of the more accessible monuments on the piazza compared to the Tower or Baptistery dome.

Not sold alone; included in the €10 combined ticket covering the Cathedral, Baptistery, Camposanto and Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, or in the €27 Tower and All Monuments pass. Free on 1 and 2 November. Last updated September 2026. Prices change, so check the official site before you go.

Most visitors to the piazza never make it inside the Camposanto because they spend their whole visit photographing the Tower; it is usually the quietest, coolest stop on the square.

See toursOfficial website
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Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Tours worth booking

A few we would book ourselves, to get more from your visit.

Booking through these links may earn Italia Magnifica a commission, at no cost to you.

  1. Pisa's Leaning Tower Climbing, Cathedral, Cemetery and Baptistery guided visit

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  2. Pisa Private tour & optional Tower access

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  3. Guided tour of Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa

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  4. Pisa all inclusive: Baptistery, Cathedral and Leaning Tower guided tour

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  5. Visit with an authorized guide the Plaza de la Catedral and all its monuments

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  6. Pisa Walking Tour with Audio and Written Guide by a Local

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Good to know

How long should you spend at the Camposanto Monumentale?

Plan on about 45 minutes to walk the galleries and read the main frescoes. Add time if you visit the nearby sinopie museum, which explains how the wall paintings were made.

Do you need to book the Camposanto Monumentale?

Usually not: it is sold among the tickets for the monuments of Piazza dei Miracoli, and you can buy at the ticket offices. Reserve the Leaning Tower separately if it is on your list, since its timed slots sell out first.

Is the Camposanto Monumentale worth visiting?

Yes, especially if you want a calm break from the crowd around the Leaning Tower. The story of the 1944 fire, and how the frescoes were saved and pieced back together, makes the cloister feel unusually moving.

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