Visiting Pisa, the Miracle Square, the Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral, the Leaning Tower, the monumental Cemetery, the Normal Superior School

PISA

According to a legend, the town of Pisa was founded by the mythological Trojan refugees who were coming from the homonymous Greek town of Pisa in the Peloponnese. Province capital of about eighty five thousand people, Pisa is lying along the River Arno, 10 km away from the Tirrenian Sea. Its climate is depending upon the maritime influence, as a matter of fact it is mild and temperate thanks also to the north-eastern protection coming from the Pisan Hills, a relief at the same distance from the town. Besides that, Pisa is hosting the most important airport of Tuscany, the “Galileo Galilei”.

The Piazza dei Miracoli is undoubtly the most important artistic and turistic centre in Pisa. Since 1987 it is under the protection of UNESCO as Humanity Heritage; it is possible to admire some of the masterpieces of the European Romanesque architecture, i.e. the monuments which form part of the religious life of the town, so-called miracles because of their beauty and originality: the cathedral, the baptistery, the cemetery and the leaning tower. The Dome of Santa Maria Assunta, the medieval cathedral, is the heart of the Miracle Square. It is a five-nave church with a three- nave transect. The building, as the bell tower, slightly sunk in the pave and some of the troubles in the building are extremely visible, as the differences of levels between the Buschero nave and its prolonging by Rainaldo. The Baptistery , dedicated to San Giovanni Battista, is arising in front of the west facade of the Cathedral. The building was started in the half of the XII century, the inside, surprisingly simple and devoid of decorations, has also an exceptional acoustic. It is the largest baptistery of Italy: its circumference is measuring 107.25 meters. The Leaning Tower, in Italy called the "Torre di Pisa", and in Pisa simply “The Tower”, is the belfry of the Dome. Below it the ground has sunk a little, thus making it lean of some grades. The belfry has been built along a couple of centuries (in three different working stages) starting from the end of the XII century. To be underlined the presence of at least three leaning towers: one of these, the most famous one, is the leaning tower in the Miracle Square; the second one, is formed by the belfry of the San Nicola Church, at the opposite end of Santa Maria Street, near the Lungarno; the third one, half way from the Piagge Street, is the belfry of the San Michele degli Scalzi church (also in this case the tower is a leaning one). The Monumental Cemetery is on the northern angle of the Square. It is actually a cemetery ringed with wall. They say that the Cemetery was born around a layer of earth brought back from The HolyLand on a ship after the Fourth Crusade. Since 1945 up to today there are still some restoration works going on, which have brought to the recovery of extremely precious synopies.

The cultural and academic tradition of Pisa is really enviable; it is seat of one of the oldest universities in Europe as well as the oldest botanical gardens of Europe. But the cultural tradition of Pisa can be defined prodigious if we take into consideration the fact that Galileo Galilei was born in this town in 1564. Napoleone Bonaparte established in 1813 the Normal Superior School, unique in Italy, which is still functioning, alongside with the Superior School of Universitary Studies of Sant’Anna, of international level.