San Giovanni Fuoricivitas

Striped Romanesque church with an extraordinary 12th-century marble flank

San Giovanni Fuoricivitas is perhaps the most visually striking of Pistoia's many medieval churches, though it stands on a quiet side street rather than the main piazza. The long flank of the church presents a spectacular wall of horizontal bands in green and white marble — sixteen courses of striped marble making the entire south side into an architectural decoration. There is no other façade quite like it in Tuscany.

The interior is less dramatic than the exterior but contains two important pieces: a pulpit by Fra Guglielmo (1270) and a terracotta group by Luca della Robbia. The church is often closed outside of service times, so the exterior flank on Via Cavour is the main experience. Walk slowly past it in the morning light, which hits the marble from the east and brings out the depth of the green bands.

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A story
The name means "Saint John Outside the City" — a reference to the church's original position outside the Roman city walls. As Pistoia grew, the walls moved outward and the church found itself inside the expanded city. The marble striping on the long flank of the church was added in the 12th and 13th centuries and is one of the finest examples of the Pisan Romanesque decorative style in Tuscany.

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