The church of San Giovanni Evangelista.

From the end of the thirteenth century the town’s church was San Michele, later renamed San Giovanni. The present church was built in 1841 by Grand Duke Leopoldo II in place of the old one, of which only a stretch of wall survives between the bell tower and the left side.

Earthquakes, cannon fire and restorations

The church was damaged by the earthquake of 1845, restored in 1934, damaged again by a cannon shot in ’44 and put back in order in ’49. In 1973 the interior was restored and in 2019 the outside was repainted. It was consecrated on 28 October 1877 by Archbishop Paolo Micallef. It has a trussed timber roof.

What it holds

On the inner wall of the façade, either side of the entrance, stand the two figures of Maria Annunziata and the Angel, in painted wood of the late sixteenth century. Also flanking the entrance are two stone holy water fonts, given in 1646 by the Marquis Carlotti: carved into the base of the one on the right are the words Doemones pellit et sordes abluit, privatis expernis, A.D. MDCXLVI.

The four side altars are the original ones. On the first on the right stands the wooden statue of San Giovanni Evangelista, with book, pen and eagle, the work of Flavio Pancheri of Ortisei; beneath the altar is the reliquary of San Celestino in painted wood — the relics were given to Riparbella by Pope Innocent XI in the seventeenth century. On the first altar on the left is the wooden statue of the Madonna and Child, bought in 1958, and beneath the altar a Dead Christ carved from a fig trunk by an anonymous local. At the second altar on the right is the canvas of Sant’Antonio Abate, and at the altar opposite the Assumption of the Virgin into heaven.

The high altar, the tabernacle and the marble lectern were made from the old altar of 1910. The choir was frescoed by Stefano Ghezzani with the Last Supper and Christ in Glory; the marble baptismal font is the work of Tuscan craftsmen. The sacristy holds two relics: one of San Ranieri, patron saint of Pisa, and one of San Celestino.

The bell tower

The bell tower dates from 1622: in 1838 its pyramidal spire was removed and replaced by a belfry, and in 1934 it was raised by six metres. A cemetery adjoined the bell tower, and a patch of ground with a cypress tree is all that remains of it.