The Tower of Pisa, known to all as the Leaning Tower, is the bell tower of the cathedral, in Piazza dei Miracoli, and it has the most famous flaw in Italy: it leans by almost four degrees. Standing 57 meters tall, wrapped in rings of blind arches...
The Baptistery of St. John, in Piazza dei Miracoli, in front of the Cathedral's facade, is the largest baptistery in the world: 107 meters around and almost 55 high. It is a round building, Romanesque below and Gothic above, also famous for the...
The Cathedral of Pisa, officially the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, is the masterpiece of Pisan Romanesque and the heart of Piazza dei Miracoli, next to the Tower. White and gray marble, a facade of loggias, five aisles inside: it is the...
The Camposanto Monumentale is the historic cemetery of Pisa, a long enclosure of white marble that closes off the north side of Piazza dei Miracoli. Inside is a Gothic cloister, with 14th-century frescoes and Roman sarcophagi: for centuries it...
The Museo Nazionale di San Matteo is the most important museum of painting and sculpture in Pisa, in a former convent on the Lungarno. It gathers works by Pisan and Tuscan masters from the 12th to the 17th century: it is considered one of the...
The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, in Piazza dei Miracoli, holds the originals of many works that you see outside as copies: the griffin above the Cathedral, the bronze door that escaped the fire, the statues of the Baptistery. It helps you...
Piazza dei Cavalieri is, after Piazza dei Miracoli, the most famous square in Pisa. It was the center of medieval civil power, then the headquarters of the Knights of St. Stephen; today it is home to the main seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore....
The Palazzo della Carovana is one of the palaces of Piazza dei Cavalieri, in Pisa: a Renaissance facade covered in sgraffito, with busts of grand dukes and coats of arms. It was the headquarters of the Knights of St. Stephen; since 1846 it has...
Santa Maria della Spina is a small Gothic church on the left bank of the Arno, in Pisa: an architecture of polychrome marble, all spires, tabernacles and statues. It takes its name from a thorn from Christ's crown, which tradition says arrived...
The Scuola Normale Superiore, known to all as "the Normale", is a public university school based in Pisa, in the Palazzo della Carovana, in Piazza dei Cavalieri. More than a monument it is an institution: from the square you see the facade,...
The Ponte di Mezzo stands at the ideal center of Pisa and joins the two halves of the city: Piazza Garibaldi, in Tramontana, and Piazza XX Settembre, in Mezzogiorno, where the Palazzo Pretorio, the Town Hall and the Logge di Banchi are found. It...
Palazzo Blu is a palace on the Lungarno Gambacorti, in Pisa, near the church of Santa Cristina, known for its blue facade, the "color of the air". Its real name is Palazzo Giuli Rosselmini Gualandi; today it is the seat of the Fondazione Pisa and...
San Michele in Borgo is a Romanesque church on Borgo Stretto, the street of arcades in the center of Pisa. It has a facade of loggias, an interior of three aisles and, under the altar, a crypt with frescoes of fantastic animals: a small stop, but...
The Jewish Cemetery of Pisa lies just outside the old walls, next to Piazza dei Miracoli, at the site of the old Porta del Leone. Since 1674 it has held the burials of the city's Jews and it is still in use: its tombs tell of centuries of history...
The Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale is housed in the palace the Medici had built on the Lungarno Pacinotti, in Pisa. Inside are the portraits, furnishings, tapestries and armor of the families who lived there: a visit to court life more than to...
The Botanical Garden of Pisa is the University's garden, part of its Museum System, a stone's throw from Piazza dei Miracoli: about three hectares of flower beds, centuries-old trees, greenhouses and a museum, for a green pause among the...
The church of San Michele degli Scalzi stands in the eastern part of Pisa, close to the Arno: a Romanesque building with a marble façade, a bell tower that leans more than the one at the Duomo, and an interior that tilts too.
The name...
The church of San Nicola sits in the heart of Pisa, on via Santa Maria, a short walk from Palazzo Reale. It is a Romanesque church with an inlaid façade and an octagonal bell tower, the most distinctive in the city after the Leaning...
Piazza Garibaldi is Pisa's drawing room, right in the center, at the foot of the Ponte di Mezzo. In the middle stands the bronze statue of Garibaldi, with historic buildings all around and the mouths of the oldest alleys.
The statue is by...
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II is the square that greets whoever arrives in Pisa by train: a large ellipse in front of the station, where corso Italia begins, the street that leads toward the center.
To make room for it, Porta San Gilio and...
The Museo delle Sinopie stands on the south side of piazza del Duomo in Pisa, in a long brick building, the former Spedale Nuovo. It holds the preparatory drawings for the frescoes of the Camposanto, hidden for centuries beneath the...
The Museo della Grafica is housed in Palazzo Lanfranchi, on Lungarno Galilei in Pisa. Inside are 20th-century drawings and prints, in a Renaissance palace made from four medieval houses.
The museum, opened in 2007 at the wish of the city...
The Arsenali Medicei are eight great brick bays on Pisa's riverfront, where in the 16th century the galleys of the Tuscan fleet were built. Today they house the museum of ancient ships, with Roman boats preserved almost whole.
The first...
The church of San Zeno stands in piazza San Zeno, in the northeast corner of Pisa's center, just inside the gate of the same name. It is a 12th-century Romanesque church, built with ancient materials and on top of even older buildings.
In...
Pisans call it the "old cathedral." The church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno stands on the riverfront, in a square that bears its name, and is among the masterpieces of Pisan Romanesque.
The nickname makes sense once you look at the façade:...
The church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri stands in piazza dei Cavalieri, in the center of Pisa: a white marble church full of flags captured from enemy ships. It tells the story of the Order founded by Cosimo I to fight piracy in the...
Piazza Cairoli, which Pisans call piazza della Berlina, is a square built by Cosimo I a few steps from the Arno, in the San Francesco district. It has a portico of arches, a statue on a column and a long history as a market: for centuries it was...
Piazza Dante is the students' living room in Pisa: a broad garden-square in the medieval Santa Maria district, with lawns, palms, benches and cafés, surrounded by the university's buildings. By day it is full of life, in the evening it falls...
Palazzo Agostini, also called the palace of the Ussero or Palazzo Rosso, is one of the most scenic palaces on Pisa's riverfront: a 14th-century Gothic façade entirely in reddish brick, with a historic café on the ground floor.
The Astajo...
The Palazzo dell'Orologio is one of the buildings on piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa, with a large central arch and a clock. Inside survives the wall of a tower that Dante made famous: that of Count Ugolino.
It came from joining two medieval...
The Palazzo Reale of Pisa stands on Lungarno Pacinotti. It was the winter residence of the court of the Medici, then of the Lorraine and the Savoy, and today it is the Museo nazionale di Palazzo Reale, with paintings, furnishings, tapestries and...
Tuttomondo is a large mural by Keith Haring on the wall of the rectory of the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Pisa, near the station. It measures about 180 square meters, ten meters high by eighteen wide: thirty colorful figures fitted...
The Arsenals of the Republic are what remains of the yard where Pisa built its galleys, in the west of the city, in the Cittadella area. Of the great complex only one shed is left, restored and now used for exhibitions.
The highlight is...
Palazzo Lanfranchi is a palace on Lungarno Galilei, in Pisa, formed by joining several medieval houses: since 2007 it has housed the Museo della Grafica, run by the city and the University. It's worth a visit for its drawings and prints, and for...
Palazzo Toscanelli is a 16th-century palace on Lungarno Mediceo, in Pisa, home since 1913 to the State Archives. It's worth a stop for its façade on the Arno and because Lord Byron lived here for a while.
The façade dates from 1576, when...
The Palazzo del Consiglio dei Dodici is one of the palaces on Piazza dei Cavalieri, in Pisa: pinkish plaster, white marble and the same late Renaissance style as the buildings around it. It deserves a look if you're visiting the square, and above...
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a small octagonal church between via San Martino and the Lungarno, in the heart of Pisa. With its pyramid roof and stone walls it looks like a little castle, but it is not a Templar building.
It belonged...
The Church of San Francesco is the second largest church in Pisa, after the cathedral. It stands in the square of the same name, with its cloister, and is a great example of Franciscan single-nave architecture.
What strikes you is the...
The Church of San Frediano is a Romanesque church in the center of Pisa, on the square of the same name, a short walk from Piazza dei Cavalieri: since 1999 it has been the university students' church, run by the Jesuits. It's worth a stop for its...
The Church of San Pietro in Vinculis, known to Pisans as San Pierino, is a Romanesque church on Via Cavour, in the center of Pisa, consecrated in 1118. It's worth a visit for its stone façade, its inlaid floor and a crypt older than the church...