Santa Maria della Spina is a small Gothic church in Pisa. It was erected around 1230 as Santa Maria di Pontenovo and enlarged after 1325. A thorn relic arrived in 1333, and the article says the later name comes from it. The city of Pisa has always administered it, apart from short periods under the local hospital.
The article calls it a gem of Pisan Gothic. The marble facade is laid in polychrome bands and decorated with cusps, tabernacles, rose windows and many statues. Sculpture is linked to Giovanni Pisano, Andrea Pisano and his sons, and others, though some attributions are hedged.
Water from the Arno prompted the dismantling and rebuilding of the church on a higher level in 1871. John Ruskin visited in 1872 and objected to the restoration.
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