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Pisa
It is indeed a freakishly beautiful
building, a sight whose impact no amount of prior knowledge
can blunt. Yet it is just a single component of Pisa's breathtaking
Campo dei Miracoli , or Field of Miracles, where the Duomo,
Baptistry and Camposanto complete a dazzling architectural
ensemble. These, and a dozen or so churches and palazzi
scattered about the historic centre, belong to Pisa's "Golden
Age", from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, when
the city was one of the maritime powers of the Mediterranean.
The so-called "Pisan Romanesque" architecture of this period,
with its black and white marble facades inspired by the
Moorish designs of Andalucia, is complemented by some of
the finest medieval sculpture in Italy, much of it from
the workshops of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. The city's
political zenith came late in the eleventh century with
a series of victories over the Saracens : the Pisans brought
back from Arab cultures long-forgotten ideas of science,
architecture and philosophy. Decline set in with defeat
by the Genoese in 1284, followed by the silting-up of Pisa's
harbour. From 1406 the city was governed by Florence, whose
Medici rulers re-established the University of Pisa, one
of the intellectual forcing houses of the Renaissance; Galileo
was one of the teachers there. Subsequent centuries saw
Pisa fade into provinciality.
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Since it was first laid out in
the mid-eleventh century, Pisa's ecclesiastical centre has
been known as the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles; also
Piazza dei Miracoli or Piazza Duomo; www.duomo.pisa.it ).
The four major buildings - the Duomo , its Bell-tower (which
almost immediately slipped to become the Leaning Tower ),
the Baptistry and the monumental cemetery of the Camposanto
- were built on a broad swathe of grassy lawn just within
the northern walls of the city. Nowhere else in Italy are
the key buildings of a city arrayed with such precision, and
nowhere is there so beautiful a contrast of stonework and
open meadow. However, the turf rests on highly unstable sandy
soil, which accounts for the tower's lean; take a look at
the baptistry and you'll see that it leans the other way from
the tower. |
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The rest
of the city centre makes for some fine wandering, through
alleys that have largely retained their medieval appearance.
Southeast, on the river, is the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo
, a fine collection of ecclesiastical art and sculpture, while
west along the Arno is the lavish Palazzo Reale mansion and
the city's huge Arsenale , the latter currently housing a
display of items taken from ongoing excavations at the newly
discovered site of Pisa's ancient harbour. |
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One of
Pisa's biggest surprises lurks in an unregarded piazza south
of the river near the train station: covering one wall of
an open bus station is the last-ever mural by US artist Keith
Haring . |
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