The circular domed Baptistry of St. John clad in white marble in the Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, built in stages from 1150 and combining Romanesque with Gothic.
Baptistery | baptistery |
In Roman Catholic usage, when commonly called an ambry, it is traditionally located in the sanctuary (as in, the altar area) of a church or in the Baptistery, and is used for the storage of the oils used in sacraments: Oil of catechumens (indicated by the Latin letters O.C.), Oil of the Sick (O.I.), and Sacred Chrism (S.C.).
Examples can be seen in the Romanesque cathedral in Bitonto, a small city near Bari, in southern Italy, and on column supports of the pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery, carved by Apulian-born sculptor Nicola Pisano around 1260.
To the west of the baptistery is the processional route that leads towards Deir Semaan.
He worked in a number of Anglican churches in the Diocese of Chichester, including the Pilgrim's progress at St Elisabeth's Eastbourne, Christ in Majesty at St Mary's Church, Goring-by-Sea, the Prodigal Son in All Saints, Iden, and St John Baptising Christ in the baptistery at Chichester Cathedral.
These doors were not finished until 1469; their reliance on a few figures placed in simple, orderly compositions against a flat ground, contrasts sharply with the elaborate pictorial effects of Lorenzo Ghiberti's more famous Baptistery doors.
In Aix-en-Provence, Riez and Fréjus, three octagonal baptistries, each covered with a cupola on pillars, are testimony to the influence of oriental architecture (the baptistry of Riez, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, recalls that of St. George, Ezra', Syria).
The baptistery, a shrine containing the relics of Saint Justina of Padua, was designed by Edward Joseph Hansom, his son, in 1871.
Also dating from 1950 is a window in the baptistery depicting Scouts, Guides, Cubs and Brownies.