Sinopie Museum

The  architectonic  majesty  and  perfection  of  Piazza  Del  Duomo  in  Pisa  is  the  most  important example  of  the  Pisan Romanesque style, a harmonious fusion of Classic, Early Christian, and Oriental motifs. The  buildings  maintain  a  highly  elegant  stylistic  unity  and, together, the Cathedral, Tower, Baptistery and Cemetery represent the allegory of human life. Apart from these four monuments, which the Italian poet Gabriele  D’Annunzio  defined  as  “miracles”  (hence  the more common, but incorrect, name of Piazza Dei Miracoli as it became known after the Second World War), there is also  space  for  other  buildings  considered  just  as  important  in  the  piazza. 

One  of  these  is  the  Sinopie  Museum, situated in the ancient 13^th century hospital to the south of the piazza. The subject of recent redevelopment work, since 1979 the Museum has been home of "sinopie", the large preparatory designs found under the frescoes that adorn the Cemetery: the first fresco was painted in 1360 and the last one around three centuries later.

On 27^th July, 1944 a grenade launched by the US artillery hit the roof of the Cemetery and set it on fire, causing molten lead to drip over the frescoes adorning the walls. The only feasible remedy at the time in order to conserve the  frescoes  was  to  detach  them  from  the  walls  using  the  “tear”  technique.  This  operation  led  to  the  discovery  of the “sinopie” for the frescoes on the walls of the Cemetery, drawings traced on the first layer of render by using a  brush  to  spread  on  a  red  clay-like  pigment  (sinopite)  mixed with water.

In the spring of 2020, after removing the old carpet covering an area of around 1,300 m2, work commenced to create new floorings using the cementitious-based system ULTRATOP LOFT. It was decided to choose this system for its ease of application, versatility, performance characteristics  and  because  only  relatively  thin  layers  need  to  be  applied. And, last but not least, these highly aesthetic interior design surfaces by Mapei are also able to withstand intense levels of foot traffic.
After the mechanical preparation of the surfaces and the treatment  with  PRIMER  SN  (immediately  fully  blinded  with  QUARTZ  0.5),  the  excess  quartz  sand  was  eliminated  from  the  hardened  surfaces  by  vacuuming  them.  
The next step was to apply a coat of ULTRATOP LOFT F, a coarse-textured, trowellable cementitious paste: the ideal product for creating internal decorative floor and wall coverings with a marked materic effect finish. In between the first layer of ULTRATOP LOFT F and the next layer made  up  of  ULTRATOP  LOFT  W,  one-component,  trowellable,  fine-textured  cementitious  paste,  the  surfaces were sanded, cleaned and then treated with PRIMER LT, an acrylic adhesion promoter used to improve adhesion between different layers of ULTRATOP LOFT and of Mapei cementitious  skimming  compounds  on  all  types  of  ab-sorbent and non-absorbent surfaces. Before applying the protective finish, the surfaces were treated with a coat of ULTRATOP BASE COAT, a one-component  acrylic  formulation  in  water  dispersion  used  to  even out absorption and to seal pores before applying the final transparent protective treatment.
The product  used  for  this  last  phase  of  the  work  was  MAPEFLOOR  FINISH  58  W,  a  two-component,  transparent,  aliphatic,  polyurethane  finish  in  water  dispersion with a matt-effect finish. Apart from enhancing the aesthetic qualities of flooring, once hardened, MAPEFLOOR FINISH 58 W also improves the mechanical properties of surfaces, such as their resistance to wear and scratches.

Sinopie are drawings traced on the first layer of render by using a brush to spread on a red clay-like pigment (sinopite) mixed with water. They were discovered after tearing away the frescoes damaged during the Second World War.