What to See in Pisa - Top Sights and Attractions

Ornate 14th-century tower with a tilt. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or simply, the Tower of Pisa, is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. The tower is one of three structures in the Pisa's Cathedral Square, which includes the cathedral and Pisa Baptistry.

The height of the tower is 55.86 metres (183 feet 3 inches) from the ground on the low side and 56.67 m (185 ft 11 in) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 2.44 m (8 ft 0 in). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 tonnes (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase.

The tower began to lean during construction in the 12th century, due to soft ground which could not properly support the structure's weight. It worsened through the completion of construction in the 14th century. By 1990, the tilt had reached 5.5 degrees. The structure was stabilized by remedial work between 1993 and 2001, which reduced the tilt to 3.97 degrees.^[1]

Green space that's home to leaning tower. The Piazza dei Miracoli, formally known as Piazza del Duomo, is a walled 8.87-hectare area located in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important centre of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. Considered sacred by the Catholic Church, its owner, the square is dominated by four great religious edifices: the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry, the Campanile, and the Camposanto Monumentale. Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is also the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito, which houses the Sinopias Museum and the Cathedral Museum.

The name Piazza dei Miracoli was coined by the Italian writer and poet Gabriele d'Annunzio who, in his novel Forse che sì forse che no (1910), described the square as the "prato dei Miracoli", or "meadow of miracles". The square is sometimes called the Campo dei Miracoli ("Field of Miracles"). In 1987, the whole square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[4]

Cloistered cemetery with unique frescoes. The Campo Santo, also known as Camposanto Monumentale or Camposanto Vecchio, is a historical edifice at the northern edge of the Cathedral Square in Pisa, Italy.

"Campo Santo" can be literally translated as "holy field", because it is said to have been built around a shipload of sacred soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Third Crusade by Ubaldo Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa in the 12th century. A legend claims that bodies buried in that ground will rot in just 24 hours. The burial ground lies over the ruins of the old baptistery of the church of Santa Reparata, the church that once stood where the cathedral now stands.

The term "monumental" serves to differentiate it from the later-established urban cemetery in Pisa.^[5]

Petite church with gothic exterior. Santa Maria della Spina is a small church in the Italian city of Pisa. The church, erected around 1230 in the Pisan Gothic style, and enlarged after 1325, was originally known as Santa Maria di Pontenovo for the newer bridge that existed nearby, collapsed in the 15th century, and was never rebuilt.

The name of della Spina ("of the thorn") derives from the presence of a thorn, putatively part of the crown of thorns placed on Christ during his Passion and Crucifixion. The relic was brought to this church in 1333. In 1871 the church was dismantled and rebuilt on a higher level due to dangerous infiltration of water from the Arno river. The church was altered in the process, however, and John Ruskin, who visited Pisa in 1872, was outraged about the restoration. The church no longer houses the “thorn”. The “thorn” is now in the Chiesa di Santa Chiara, which is on show inside and can be found on Via Roma.

The church of Santa Maria della Spina has always been administered by the city, except for short interruptions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it fell to the responsibility of the local hospital.^[6]

Arboretum and herbs in botanical gardens. The Orto botanico di Pisa, also known as the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pisa, is a botanical garden operated by the University of Pisa, and located at via Luca Ghini 5, Pisa, Italy.

The garden was established in 1544 under Cosimo I de' Medici as the first university botanical garden in Europe, and entrusted to the famous botanist Luca Ghini of Imola. In 1563 the garden was relocated from its original riverside location (now the Medicean Arsenal) to one near the convent of Santa Marta, and in 1591 (under Joseph Goedenhuyze) again moved to its third and current location. From these early times, the garden has contained a gallery of natural objects (now Pisa's Museo di Storia Naturale), a library (now part of the university library), and portraits of its directors throughout the centuries. It also includes one of the earliest iron-framed hothouses built in Italy.

Today the garden is divided into sections containing the botanical school, gardens, ponds, greenhouses, and various buildings. Major collections include herb gardens and arboreta, as well as the old botany institute, built 1591–1595, with a facade ornamented with sea-shells.^[9]

The statue of Cosimo I de' Medici stands in the middle of Knights' Square of Pisa, just in front of Palazzo della Carovana.

It was commissioned by Grand Duke Ferdinando I in 1596 to the Franco-Flemish sculptor Pietro Francavilla, who executed it in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition. The statue celebrates Ferdinando's father as the first Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen and is a civic symbol of the hegemony of Florence.

The Grand Duke Cosimo is represented in the robes of Grand Master, standing on a high pedestal, in the act of subduing a dolphin, symbol of his domination over the seas. The fountain, in front of the pedestal, was also erected by Francavilla. It has a basin in the form of a shell decorated with two grotesque monsters.

The statue has been damaged in the course of time.^[15]

Octagonal church from the early 1100s. The Church of the Santo Sepolcro is a religious edifice in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

Built in the early 12th century (it is known at least from 1113), it was designed by Diotisalvi, who also designed the Baptistery of Pisa Cathedral forty years later. It has an octagonal plan and, until the 16th century, it was surrounded by a portico. The central tambour, supported by eight ogival arches, is super-elevated and is surmounted by a conic cusp.

The attribution to the Holy Sepulchre is a reference to the latter's relics which were carried in Pisa by archbishop Dagobert after his participation to the First Crusade. The structure resembles indeed the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, conquered by the crusaders in 1099.

The portals have decorations with animals and lions' heads in marble. The interior, restored in 1720 in Baroque style, was destroyed in the 19th century. What remains include a bust-reliquary of St. Ubaldesca (15th century) with a pail which, according to the tradition, belonged to the saint; the tombstone of Marie Mancini, Mazarin's niece; and a 15th-century panel of the Madonna with Child.

The unfinished small bell tower is in Pisane-Romanesque style, with rectangular plan.^[21]

Catholic church in Pisa, Italy. San Sisto is a church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

It was consecrated in 1133 but previously it had been already used as the seat of the most important notary act of the Pisan commune. It was built in a Pisane-Romanesque style in stone. The façade is divided in three parts divided by pilaster strips, with a mullioned window and arches in the upper part which continues on the whole exterior. Notable is the typical local decoration with Islamic ceramic basins from the 10th-11th centuries (copies; the original are in the Museum of St. Matthew in the city).

The interior has a nave and two aisles, divided by columns with ancient Roman capitals, with hut-shaped ceiling. It houses also an Arabic tombstone, the copy of a 14th-century Madonna with Child and the rudder of a Pisane galley (13th-14th centuries).^[22]

Building in Pisa, Italy. Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri is a church in central Pisa located on Piazza dei Cavalieri.

Construction began on 17 April 1565 in order to build a church for the Order of Knights of St Stephan, founded by the Grand Duke Cosimo de' Medici to fight Saracen piracy in the Mediterranean. The project with designs and oversight by Giorgio Vasari and David Fortini was to build a church on the site of an older church called San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori, which dated at least to 1074. The new church on the site was consecrated by 21 December 1569. The facade, in white marble was designed by Don Giovanni de' Medici, illegitimate son of Cosimo I, with the help of Alessandro Pieroni; their designs were chosen over Vasari’s original plan. An inscription commemorates completion during the reign of Ferdinando I de' Medici.

The bell-tower, also designed by Vasari, was completed by 1572 by Giovanni Fancelli. The main altar designs were by Pier Francesco Silvani. Many alterations and additions were proposed and made over the next two centuries, including plans by Gherardo Mechini, Paolo Guidotti, Ranieri Gherardi, Torpè Donati, Alessandro Gherardesca, Florido Galli, Niccolò Matas, and Pasquale Poccianti. The final reconstruction in 1859, completed after the suppression of the order, creates the clearer interior systematization of columns we see today.^[29]

Catholic church in Pisa, Italy. San Francesco de' Ferri is a church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

Mentioned for the first time in a document from 1233, the church was rebuilt starting from 1261 by will of archbishop Federico Visconti. The church was under the patronage of the Pisane noble families, who owned a series of private chapels for their burials; the Franciscan were limited to the administration of the cult. The works, directed by Giovanni di Simone, ended in 1270 and included also the slender bell tower.

The marble façade is from 1603. The interior was revamped in the same age, with paintings by Jacopo da Empoli, Domenico Passignano and Santi di Tito. In the transept are frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi (1342-1345), Galileo Chini (20th century) and an altar frontal by Tommaso Pisano (late 14th century).

The sacristy has frescoes by Taddeo di Bartolo (1397) with Histories of Mary, while the Capitolium Hall has frescoes by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini with Histories of the life of Christ (1392). The rectangular cloister is from the 14th century.

After a period as military barracks, the church was declared national monument in 1893. The church was once home to Giotto's Stigmata of St. Francis and Cimabue's Maestà, both robbed by the French in the 1810s and now housed at the Louvre Museum.^[34]