Pisa City in Italy

The city lies on the alluvial plain of the Arno River, about 6 miles (10 km) from the Ligurian Sea and 50 miles (80 km) west of Florence.  Pisa lay by the sea until the 15th century, by which time accumulated silt deposited by the Arno River had completely cut the city off from the receding shoreline.  Pisa survived the collapse of the Roman Empire to remain the principal urban centre of Tuscany.  Exploiting its sea power and the products and markets of its fertile Tuscan hinterland, the city revived in the 11th century to become a flourishing commercial centre.

 In the 13th century, Pisa, a Ghibelline city, enjoyed the support of the German emperors in its long conflicts with Genoa at sea and with its Tuscan rivals, Lucca and Florence, on land.  These struggles culminated in Pisa`s defeat by the Genoese fleet at the decisive Battle of Meloria in 1284. Despite this defeat, Pisa became a busy centre of woolen manufacturing late in the 13th century and remained the chief port of Tuscany.  Pisan prosperity was reflected in the characteristic casatorre, a tall inhabited tower usually built of brick and stone, and in the city`s churches, particularly the grandiose and spectacular group of cathedral, baptistery, and campanile (the leaning tower).

 The cathedral and the baptistery were decorated by a succession of distinguished sculptors, including Guglielmo Pisano, Bonanno Pisano, Nicola Pisano, and Nicola`s son Giovanni Pisano.  Large quantities of merchandise continued to pass through the city until the 15th century, when silting made the movement of laden galleys up the Arno River almost impossible.  Pisa is distinguished above all by a remarkable group of buildings in the Piazza del Duomo, the so-called Square of Miracles, located at the northwestern end of the medieval walled city.  This piazza contains the cathedral, or Duomo; the baptistery; the campanile, or Leaning Tower of Pisa; and the camposanto, or cemetery.

 Both the cathedral and the baptistery are built of white marble with strips of black in the Pisan Romanesque style, which features colonnades and the decorative use of pointed arches.  Inside the cathedral is a splendid decagonal pulpit carved in white marble (1302–11; restored 1926) by Giovanni Pisano.  The Leaning Tower of Pisa, begun in 1174 and completed in the 14th century, is also round and is constructed throughout of white marble, inlaid on the exterior with coloured marbles.  (See Leaning Tower of Pisa.

) The camposanto`s marble buildings, erected from 1278 in the Italian Gothic style by Giovanni di Simone, contained important frescoes by various 14th- and 15th-century Tuscan artists, notably Benozzo Gozzoli.  His frescoes there were damaged by bombing during World War II but have since been restored. Pisa`s notable old churches, lying mostly north of the river, include San Pierino (11th–12th century); San Frediano and San Sepolcro (both 12th century); San Nicola, with a four-storied tower of about 1250; San Francesco (13th century), which has frescoes painted by Taddeo Gaddi in 1342; Santa Caterina (13–14th century); San Michele in Borgo, with a fine 14th-century facade; and Santa Maria della Spina, which is built of white marble in the Pisan Gothic style and was enlarged in 1323.
.