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Sightseeing in Pisa
Sightseeing in Pisa
Pisa's Historical Center
A good place to begin a tour of Pisa's Historical Center is midway along the Arno River, at the Ponte di Mezzo, which marks the southern boundary of Pisa’s main historical district. Here, the arcaded Borgo Stretto stretches in front of you, its range of increasingly classy shops representing the city’s commercial heart. Nearby, on the right, is the 14th-century façade of the Chiesa di San Michele (Church of St. Michele). Built in 990 AD and successively amplified, it documents magnificently the passage from the Romanesque to Gothic styles. Inside, you’ll find a 13th-century marble crucifix, sculpted for the portal of the Camposanto by Nino Pisano and moved here in the 18th century.
From the Chiesa di San Michele, a left along Via Dini leads to Piazza dei Cavalieri, significant as the medieval heart of the city. Before Vasari adapted it to the current Renaissance look, it was known as the Piazza delle Sette Vie (the Square of the Seven Roads). He remodeled it to honor the Knights of Santo Stefano, an order founded by Cosimo I in 1561 to defend Pisa’s coast from scavenging pirates. You can visit the Chiesa di San Stefano dei Cavalieri (050-580814, Mon- Sat , summer, 10 am-7 pm, winter, 11 am-4:30 pm, €1.50), with works by Vasari and Bronzino and spoils from the knights’ victorious sea battles, as well as their former headquarters, the sgraffiti-decorated Palazzo della Carovana (1562-64). The latter went on to became the seat of the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore, while the tower to the right of it (the Torre della Muda) is believed to have been the medieval prison where Count Ugolino della Gherardesca succumbed to hunger in 1289.
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