Church of San Bernardo

On the remains of the ancient hospital of Osnello, mentioned for the first time in 1189, the new church of San Bernardo was built in 1444. Little remains of the small late-medieval oratory, since between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries it underwent numerous interventions that altered its appearance. The interior still retains three frescoes with Stories of San Bernardo by Tommaso Tommasi and the frescoes Natività della Vergine and Annunciazione by Giovanni Battista Tempesti (1754-1755), the greatest representative of eighteenth-century Pisan painting.Medicean rigour: The contrast between the materials used in the church of San Bernardo and the marble façade of the church of San Giovanni dei Fieri is evident. Built in 1613 under the direction of Cosimo Pugliani, architect of the Logge dei Banchi, it was financed by Don Antonio de’ Medici, as recalled by the inscription surmounted by the large Medici coat of arms. The church was part of the renovation plan concerning religious buildings started by Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici at the end of the sixteenth century, which also included San Francesco and San Matteo in Soarta.