/ URBAN ARCHITECTURE
/ Piazza Martiri della Libertà
The square was inaugurated in1833; it was built by will of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to a design by the architect Alessandro Gherardesca. The almost perfectly rectangular space was planned according to the new requirements of town planning and the…
/ Piazza Garibaldi
The square stands at the northern end of Ponte di Mezzo and is flanked on three sides by historically important buildings that defined social and cultural life in Pisa until the Late Modern Age. Opposite the bridge, like a backdrop, on the corner of…
/ Piazza Gambacorti
Pisans call this square piazza della Pera because of the ancient Etruscan pear-shaped cippus nearby, on the corner of via S. Martino. Thanks to careful archaeological explorations in 2004 that uncovered the remains of the medieval church of S.…
/ Piazza delle Vettovaglie
The square was shaped between 1543 and 1565, when this part of the town centre was redesigned under Medici rule. This was a lively quarter in the middle ages, where homes and chapels of noblemen, like the Visconti and Erizi families, mixed with…
/ Piazza dei Grilletti
A walk through Chinzica, the part of the city south of the river, takes you through narrow alleyways and some wider streets that follow the paths of medieval carraie, streets wide enough for carts.The name Chinzica was given to this part of town by…
/ Piazza dei Cavalieri
Piazza dei Cavalieri is the result of a huge operation of re-adaptation on the square, ordered by Cosimo I in 1558 and entrusted to Giorgio Vasari. His aim was to give the buildings (constructed, in his words, “in confusione e disordine” “in…
/ Piazza Dante
The open space called Piazza Dante, between il palazzo della Sapienza to the south and the church of S. Frediano to the north-east, is the result of alterations to this area in the early 20th century. This airy square was created by demolishing an…
/ Piazza Carrara
Before being redesigned by the Lorena family, this square was named after the church of St. Nicholas. As far back as could be remembered, it had been the place where a particular ball game “palla con il bracciolo” was played, enthusiastically…
/ Piazza Cairoli, once “dei Cavoli”, later “della Berlina”
The square was laid out towards the mid 1500s, under the reign of Cosimo I de Medici, an idea of the superintendant Luca Martini. Work was carried out by Giovan Battista Cervelliera, already engaged in work on Pisa Cathedral. The old medieval…
/ Mura in via Nino Bixio e porta San Gilio
Some remains of the southern and western part of the 12th century city walls still stand on via Nino Bixio. There are three postern gates dating from the earliest period of this segment of walls in the southern part, while other more roughly…