The relationship between Pisa, Spain and Provence are highlighted by the narrative of the martyrdom of Torpé officer of the court of Nero, who converted to Christianity and baptized here. Subjected to many tortures he was finally beheaded near the mouth of the Arno. Legend has it that the body abandoned on a boat with a dog and a rooster landed in Spain, while the head was preserved as a relic in the present church of St. Torpé Pisa. Veneration of the Christian martyr, who probably was a native of Spain or the East, took the name of the gulf and the city of Saint Tropez, where people make every year on April 29 on a pilgrimage to Pisa in his commemoration. The same Pisani venerate the saint from 1632 when the plague stopped. The saint’s bones are now housed in a silver bust on the High Altar.
The church dates from the thirteenth century, when there was an adjoining monastery, belonged to various religious orders, to the current Discalced Carmelites. Like other churches in Pisa, was rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Inside is an original painting by the Florentine Mannerist Marucelli, composed of a large canvas depicting the central "San Carlo in front of the Crucifix" and other 16 small paintings, oval, circular or square symmetrically arranged around the second order.