The church is dedicated to St. Fridianus, a hermit of Irish origin who was bishop of Lucca in the 6th century.
It is a very ancient church (built between the eleventh and twelfth centuries) which still retains the façade in Romanesque-Pisan style.
It is divided in three orders, and has seven blind arches that frame lozenges according to the style introduced by the architect Buscheto for the Cathedral of Pisa in Piazza dei Miracoli.
The interior, with a basilica structure with three naves, has columns and capitals coming mostly from Roman buildings.
In the first chapel on the left (Cappella Pesciolini) is a majestic cross, painted in tempera and gold, the Crucifix, with the stories of the Passion, by an unknown painter (12th century), which was relocated there in 2004.
On the same side of the building is the Adoration of the Magi by Aurelio Lomi.
A great deal of pictorial furnishings and paintings by Ventura Salimbeni from Siena ("Annunciation" and "Nativity"), Aurelio Lomi ("Adoration of the Magi"), and frescoes by Domenico Passignano and other masters connected to the Medici court are due to the sixteenth-century restructuring.
The frescoes in the dome are by Rutilio Manetti.
Noteworthy is the monument to the anatomist Ruschi from 1753 with a sumptuous marble decoration of skeletons.
At the behest of the Archbishop of Pisa, the church of San Frediano is the Pisan university church and home to meetings, student associations and activities.
Recommended.