Pisa lies along the Arno River, about six miles from the Ligurian Sea. It is a fifteen minute train ride from Livorno (12
miles), and an hour's train ride from Pisa to Florence. While Florence is more
world-renowned than Pisa, it wasn't always that way. During the Middle Ages,
Pisa was the most powerful city in all of Tuscany. Its power began to erode
at about the same time as Florence began to flourish under the Medici
family, and the city faded from power.
Today it is a pleasant
university town but it is known mainly for its leaning tower.
Pisa's top three sites are all located in Campo dei Miracoli
(or, in English, the Field of Miracles), the buildings
that have made Pisa famous. The four most notable Pisan buildings are the
Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Cathedral (Duomo) of Pisa, the Baptistery, and
the burial grounds of the Camposanto Monumentale. The architecture of the
all of the buildings on the Campo dei Miracoli are consistent with the
arabesque style; they incorporate intricately carved column capitals
supporting tall narrow arches. After that, there isn't too much to see in
the immediate area of Pisa.
Campo die Mira coli
Tickets purchased at the Livorno train station to Pisa currently are 1.90 euro each way and the trip takes between 15 - 20 minutes. When you get to Station Pisa Central it is about a mile to the Field of Miracles (Piazza die Mira coli) that can be easily walked in 25 minutes (see map below) from Piazza della Stationed, Pisa as your starting point and Piazza die Mira coli, Pisa as your end point.
You can also take a bus (Shuttle Red Lam) from Station Pisa Central (opposite the main entrance of the station). It stops in Manin Square. And taxi service is available opposite the main entrance of the station.
TICKETS
Tickets and information available on-line. HERE
For around 17 Euro you can purchase a combination ticket-- or 15 Euro if purchased on site (however, you may have to stand in a long line). Credit card or Euro is the only accepted currency. There are different combinations, depending on which, and how many, you want to visit. For instance, you may pay around 8 Euros each for entry to the Cathedral, Baptistery and Camposanto. Add the Tower and you’ll pay 15 Euro, or visit the cathedral only for 5 Euro. Check the link above for current information.
On-line you must:
1. Choose the date of your visit.
2. Choose the time of your visit and number of tickets you would like to buy.
3. Fill-in and submit the form with your personal data.
4. Print the voucher that is proof of your payment and take it with you when you visit Pisa.
In order to collect your ticket and avoid the cue you can provide your voucher to the cash desk no. 2 located inside the "Sinopie Museum" or cash desk no. 2 at the Central Ticket office 30 minutes before the visiting time scheduled. The cashier will give you the ticket for the visit. (NOTE: The ticket is valid only for the time shown on the ticket and the voucher)
Other stipulations:
*No bags or baggage can be taken inside the sites. You must go to the proper "left-luggage" office to hand in bags/luggage before starting the visit.
*For security reasons, children under 8 years old are not allowed to access the Leaning Tower.
*The visit will last about 30 minutes and led by the staff of Opera della Primaziale Pisana.
*The spiral staircase has 300 steps so people with heart disorders or other health conditions should not visit the Tower.
*Some monuments may be temporary closed for restoration or maintenance or in case of bad weather.
* Cameras, movie cameras and video cameras are allowed.
Campo dei Miracoli
The square
is located on the edge of the medieval city alongside the early
medieval city walls built in 1155 and still perfectly
preserved. In this patch of
green, the perfect backdrop for the white marble of
the various buildings, you
will be able to soak up some of the atmosphere as
you
take your photos.
Three massive bronze doors at the main entrance replaced the original ones
destroyed in the fire in 1595. The facade above the entrance is dominated by
four rows of tall arches which are inspired by the Moorish architecture. The
arches above the main entrance are topped by the statues of Madonna with
Child and the Four Evangelists on the corners.
The Cathedral (Duomo) of Pisa
The Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) is dominated by the nearly 1,000-year-old Duomo di Pisa despite its close proximity to the main tourist attraction, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. Designed in 1063 by architect Busketo, the Duomo is an example of magnificent Pisan Romanesque style architecture. The medieval cathedral, designated to Santa Maria Assunta (St. Mary of the Assumption) is a five-nave cathedral with a three-nave transept. Buscheto, is buried in the last blind arch on the left of the facade.
The facade, of grey marble and white stone set with discs of colored
marble, was created by a master named Rainaldo, as indicated by an
inscription above the middle door: Rainaldus prudens operator.
The normal entrance to the church, however, The Porta di San Ranieri, or the
St. Ranieri's Gate, is located just opposite the famous Leaning Tower of
Pisa. Bonanno Pisano had earlier (1180) done 3 west doors for the Pisa
Duomo which were tragically destroyed in a fire in 1595. This fourth original
bronze door survived with engravings portraying the scenes from the life of
Christ and the Virgin.
Bronze door of San Ranieri
The nave (the central approach to the high altar) Apse (vaulted arch at high alter)
Massive granite Corinthian columns divide the nave
and aisles. The enormous 13th-century
apse is dominated by a beautiful mosaic of Christ flanked by Blessed Virgin
and St. John the Evangelist which reveals the Byzantine influence. Though
the mosaic is often attributed to Cimabue, only St. John the Evangelist
is the work of the artist.
The gold-decorated coffer ceiling of the nave featuring the coat of arms of the Medici was added after the fire in 1595. The elliptical dome cupola at the intersection of the nave and the transept (the aisle that crosses the nave at right angles) features depiction of the Blessed Virgin by Riminaldi
.
Giovanni Pisano's masterpiece pulpit rests on the beautiful floor embellished with multicolored marble designs.
On the north side of the nave, Giovanni Pisano's stunning pulpit has
regained its rightful place. The masterpiece was built between 1302 and
1311. The beautifully sculpted panels represent scenes from the life of
Jesus.
The Cathedral was adorned through the years with numerous works of art.
On the left-hand pier at the near end of the choir is a "Madonna and Child" by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani
The Duomo holds more treasures, including Galileo's lamp, reputed to have belonged to the world-famous astronomer. Hanging low near the pulpit, the large bronze lamp (according to legend), incentivized Galileo as he stared at it swaying gently back and forth. This is when his law of the pendulum suddenly hit him. Since this lamp was cast in 1586, a few years after Galileo's discovery, another lamp probably hung here before this one.
Leaning Tower of
Pisa
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HISTORY: Architects began
building this most famous of medieval campaniles in 1173, but work stopped
abruptly five years later when they first noticed a pronounced lean to the
north. This was caused by a weak foundation constructed on top of silty,
unstable soil
from a former estuary. Only three stories had gone up when they halted
construction.
In 1250 when work resumed, architects began trying to adjust the lean.
Their effort caused the Tower to have a slight banana shape by the time they reached the eighth and
final story as the campanile stayed more or less vertical at about the fifth floor.
By 1272, the tower began leaning toward the south. Before they
constructed the bell tower in 1350, architects actually tried to angle the
top of the tower back toward the north by adding four steps on the north
side and six steps on the south side at the base of the bell tower, that was
what gave the Tower an ever-so-slight S shape.
For centuries, many have offered solutions to how to right the tower. In
1934, engineers working for Italian leader Benito Mussolini, who considered
the flawed tower antithetical to Fascist ideals, tried to right it by
injecting almost 200 tons of cement into the base. The "fix" actually added
a tenth of a degree to the tilt. In the 1950s, officials silenced the seven
bells, the largest of which weighs three and a half tons, for fear their
vibrations could trigger a collapse. And in 1990, at a time when 700,000
annual visitors were ascending the campanile and the lean increased by
one-20th of an inch every year, officials closed Pisa's famous Torre
Pendente to the public.
Since then, many
experts have tried numerous methods to right or at least halt the lean of the
185-foot tower, whose top today lies 16 feet south of the base. Sophisticated monitors
were installed, which can detect movements at the
campanile's apex to within four-ten-thousandths of an inch. These
instruments pick up the tower's daily sway of about one-hundredth of an
inch, which is caused by the temperature of the sun-facing south side rising
by day and falling at night.
The device also picked up a frightening overnight increase in the lean, in
what committee members recall as "Black September." On September 6th, 1995,
after engineers had added 600 tons of lead ingots to the north side to
counteract the southward tilt, the tower jumped one-sixteenth of an inch to
the south. In tower terms, that's a lot, and some feared the tower would
topple imminently. Within 24 hours, engineers began adding an additional 230
tons of lead, and the movement stopped. After a decade of corrective
reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the
public on December 15, 2001, and was declared stable for at least another
300 years. In May 2008, after the removal of another 70 metric tons
(77 short tons) of earth, engineers announced that the Tower had been
stabilized such that it had stopped moving for the first time in its
history. They stated it would be stable for at least 200 years.
Burial grounds of the Camposanto Monumentale
The Camposanto Monumentale, is arguably the most beautiful graveyard in the
world. Lining the northern side of the Piazza dei Miracoli, the white marble
walls of the Camposanto enclose a grassy courtyard surrounded by cloisters
(covered walkways).
Many of the crumbling tombstones here are Roman dating from the 14th
century--most of the tombs are under the arcades. A collection of
sarcophagi, presently are inside the galleries near the walls. The serene atmosphere is enhanced
by the beautiful remains of frescoes that adorn the walls inside, though sadly
these were badly damaged in a fire during the war. The building was the
fourth and last one to be raised in the Cathedral Square. It was erected
over the earlier burial ground.
The outer wall is composed of 43 blind arches.
There are two doorways. The one on the right is crowned by a gracious Gothic
tabernacle. It contains the Virgin Mary with Child, surrounded by four
saints. It is the work from the second half of the 14th century by a
follower of Giovanni Pisano. This was the original entrance door. Ancient
relics that were found in Pisa now make it sort of an archeological museum
inside the cemetery.
The cemetery has three chapels. The oldest ones are the
chapel Ammannati (1360) and takes its name from the tomb of Ligo Ammannati,
a teacher in the University of Pisa; and the chapel Aulla, were there is an
altar made by Giovanni della Robbia in 1518. In this chapel we can see also
the original lamp that Galileo Galilei saw, in his time, inside the
cathedral and that was shortly replaced by the bigger one we can see now.
The last chapel was Dal Pozzo, commissioned by archbishop of Pisa Carlo
Antonio Dal Pozzo in 1594; it has an altar dedicated to St. Jerome and a
little dome. In this chapel in 2009 were translated the relics of the
Cathedral: the relics include among the others eleven of the twelve
Apostles, two fragments of the True Cross, a thorn from the Crown of Christ
and a small piece of the dress of the Virgin Mary. Also in the Dal Pozzo
chapel sometimes a Mass is celebrated.
The Baptistery
Italy's biggest baptistery. Most of
the exterior statues and decorative elements by Giovanni Pisano are now kept
in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo, and only a few have been replaced here
with casts. It may not look it, but if you include the statue on top, this
building is actually taller than the Leaning Tower across the square. The
interior is surprisingly plain but features the first of the great Pisano
pulpits as well as a large baptismal font, carved and inlaid
The Baptistery Pulpit was built in 1260 by Nicola Pisano. It is hexagonal in shape and the six sculpted panels depict the life and death of Christ. The Baptistery, near the Cathedral, is huge, and very imposing from the inside. It is famous for the Pulpit, which is a great work of the year 1260 by Nicola Pisano.
Campo die Miracoli is pretty much
all the "tourist area" of Pisa. There are many villages and little cities
around the town that are attractive and would be great places to
visit...but that's another day.. year!
Information of where to go and what to do if you are mobility, sight or
hearing impaired - a wheelchair or cane user - and living in or visiting
Tuscany. Information on the Italian organizations and facilities.
HERE
This website has been converted to EBook form for: Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android devices, PC and Mac. Available at www.amazon.com in all languages. Download the PISA app from Carol's Worldwide Cruise Port Itineraries for the complete book and take your itineraries with you on your next cruise! To see all of my published EBooks, type: Carol's Worldwide Cruise Port Itineraries into www.amazon.com .
WALKING DIRECTIONS from Piazza della Stazione
Head northwest on Piazza della Stazione toward Viale Antonio Gramsci
Turn left to stay on Piazza della Stazione
Turn right at Viale Antonio Gramsci
Turn left at Via Cesare Battisti
Turn right at Via Silvio Pellico
Turn left at Piazza Sant'Antonio
Continue onto Via Francesco Crispi
Continue straight onto Piazza Aurelio Saffi
Continue onto Ponte Solferino
Continue onto Piazza Solferino
Slight right to stay on Piazza Solferino
Continue onto Via Roma
Turn left at Piazza del Duomo
Piazza dei Miracoli (Ending Point)
