Sant'Andrea is a modest-looking Romanesque church on Via Sant'Andrea, a short walk from the Piazza del Duomo, but it contains one of the greatest works of medieval Italian sculpture: the hexagonal pulpit carved by Giovanni Pisano and completed in 1301. The six narrative reliefs — Annunciation and Nativity, Journey of the Magi, Adoration, Massacre of the Innocents, Crucifixion, and Last Judgment — are carved with extraordinary energy, the figures pushing against the frame in a way that feels almost physically violent.
The pulpit is the best reason to visit Pistoia. Pisano's work here anticipates the expressive intensity of Michelangelo by two hundred years. Stand close and examine the Massacre of the Innocents panel: the grief and fury of the figures, the writhing bodies, and the compressed composition make it one of the most emotionally intense works of the medieval period. The rest of the church is simple and well-preserved, with a Romanesque façade and a few good works in the interior chapels.