A sort of magic number recurs several times in this Baptistery: eight.
Like the sides of the monument, which geometrically design its outline and make it so characteristic. The bas-reliefs that adorn the interior walls of the Baptistery with scenes from the Life of Jesus, the work of the famous fourteenth-century sculptor Giovanni da Campione. Or the statues placed outside the dome, at the corners, representing the Virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity, Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, with the addition of Patience.
A nomadic baptistery, which seems not to find peace: the building as we see it today is in fact the result of numerous displacements over the centuries.
Built in 1340 inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Città Alta, it remained there until 1661. Subsequently, it was dismembered and reassembled in a completely arbitrary manner, with additions and reconstructions, twice more. It finally finds its final location in 1898-99 on the west side of the Piazza del Duomo in Città Alta, where it is recreated in neo-Gothic style.
At the center of the only octagonal hall of which it is composed, you can admire the Gothic decorations of the baptismal font, that is the basin that contained the water to baptize people according to the Catholic rite. Behind it, you will see the altar surmounted by a marble statue depicting St. John the Baptist.
