Feast of San Jacopo | Vicopisano

The traditional and heartfelt religious feast dedicated to the saint takes place every year on July 25 in the beautiful Romanesque church of San Jacopo in Lupeta, exceptionally open to the public. The celebration is generally spread over two days during which there are religious services and popular celebrations.

It ends on the second day with a night religious procession from the Pieve di S. Maria to the Pieve di S. Jacopo, where the faithful attend the Mass with a concert of classical music. particularly suggestive. The dinner on the lawn in front of “Il Botteghino” brings together at the same table the two souls of the festival, the religious and the secular.

The Romanesque church of San Iacopo rises at about 1 km from Vicopisano. It was built in the Lombard era and originally dedicated to San Mamiliano, as still recalls the inscription inscribed on the lintel of the main portal. The cult of this saint was diffused above all in the Tuscan Archipelago and in Alto Lazio. Already documented in the 8th century, it was annexed to the monastic complex of the Augustinian Hermits. Entitled to San Iacopo in the first half of the fifteenth century, shortly afterwards it began to decay because of the continuous wars between Pisa and Florence. In the nineteenth century the remains of the ancient monastery were transformed into a large farmhouse, then private villa.

The church has a tau (T) plant and masonry in verrucano limestone ashlars. The portal is framed by pilasters, one of which has a horned animal head in relief, surmounted by a rich decorated architrave that was part of the oldest church, together with a mullioned window and a bas-relief of the VIII-IX century depicting a biblical scene. The massive bell tower, similar to a defensive tower, was lowered in height following a mine detonated by the retreating Nazis in 1944.

The interior, with a single nave and no apse, has capitals richly decorated with plant and animal motifs. It preserves 14th-century frescos, detached and recomposed on table, representing some saints; a Bishop Saint, perhaps San Mamiliano, San Giovanni Battista and a fragment of San Girolamo. Along the right wall there is a relief shelf representing the Dextera Domini (10th century) and a plate with a symbolic scene that seems to allude to the Passion of Christ (9th-10th century)