Santa Maria della Spina

Santa Maria della Spina tickets: which one to buy

This small church sits on the embankment of the Arno in Pisa, on the south bank, about ten minutes on foot from the leaning tower and completely missed by the great majority of visitors, who arrive by coach, photograph the tower and leave within two hours. That is the argument for walking. Entry costs very little and the hours are short and seasonal, often afternoons only and reduced in winter, so check before crossing the river.

Walking tours of Pisa beyond the cathedral square include it along with the Knights' square, the university quarter and the riverside palaces, and they are inexpensive and easy to find. Cycling tours cover the same ground faster. If your time in the city is genuinely two hours, stay at the tower; if you have half a day, this church is the best thing in Pisa after the cathedral complex and the walk along the water is pleasant in itself.

Visiting Santa Maria della Spina: what to see

The church was built in the fourteenth century as a small oratory for river workers and takes its name from a thorn, said to be from the crown of thorns, brought back from the Holy Land and kept here for centuries. It is tiny, no larger than a chapel, and covered outside with an extraordinary density of ornament: gables, pinnacles, tabernacles, rosettes and rows of carved figures in white and coloured marble, packed onto every surface so that the building reads as a reliquary enlarged to the size of a room.

Several sculptors of the Pisano circle worked on it. In 1871 the whole structure was taken apart and rebuilt about a metre higher, because the river flooded it repeatedly, and some of the original carving was replaced by copies during that operation, with the originals now in museums. The interior is bare by comparison and holds a Madonna group carved by Andrea Pisano's workshop. Rows of small tabernacles along the roofline each hold a standing figure, and no two are carved alike.

Santa Maria della Spina opening hours and the best time to go

Opening hours are the main obstacle and change by season; the church is often shut on Mondays and through the middle of the day. Late afternoon light hits the river front directly and is the reason photographers come, and the building is floodlit after dark. The Arno embankment is the centre of Pisa's own calendar: in June the illumination of the river with tens of thousands of candles, followed by a historic regatta and a bridge contest, fills the banks for a week and is far more interesting than anything on the tower square.

Summer is hot and the coach crowds peak; spring and autumn are better. The church has no cloakroom and holds only a few people at a time. Allow fifteen minutes inside and a good deal longer walking the embankment in both directions, which is the real pleasure here. The river path continues west to the mouth of the Arno and is flat enough for bicycles the whole way.