Description
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 buildings, the tower-house of the Capitano del Popolo and the Gualandi tower, linked by an arch with the clock. The palace took its present form in 1605-1608, following a design by Vasari from 1554.
The tower was called the Muda, because during the molting of their feathers the Commune shut its eagles, the city's symbol, inside it. Later it became a prison, known as "della Fame" or "delle sette vie."
Here, at the end of the 13th century, according to tradition, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca died with his sons and grandsons: Dante tells of their end in Canto XXXIII of the Inferno. The details of the story, however, are legendary.
Between 1607 and 1609 Giovanni Stefano Marucelli and Filippo Palladini frescoed the façade and the vault of the arch with panoplies, grotesques and allegorical figures, in celebration of the Medici and of the Order of Saint Stephen. The clock and the bell chamber are from 1696.
For the knights of Saint Stephen the palace was an infirmary, from 1566. The head of health care was called the "Bonomo," and for this reason it is also known as the palazzo del Bonomo.
The neo-Gothic four-light window to the left of the arch dates from 1919, when Count Alberto della Gherardesca bought the palace and renovated it in neo-Gothic style. The work was judged questionable.
Since 1982 it has belonged to the Scuola Normale Superiore, which turned it into a library: an underground passage links it to the palazzo della Carovana. Inside, a museum space is devoted to Ugolino's tower: you see its surviving walls, along a route accompanied by Dante's verses.
It came from joining two medieval buildings, the tower-house of the Capitano del Popolo and the Gualandi tower, linked by an arch with the clock. The palace took its present form in 1605-1608, following a design by Vasari from 1554.
The tower was called the Muda, because during the molting of their feathers the Commune shut its eagles, the city's symbol, inside it. Later it became a prison, known as "della Fame" or "delle sette vie."
Here, at the end of the 13th century, according to tradition, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca died with his sons and grandsons: Dante tells of their end in Canto XXXIII of the Inferno. The details of the story, however, are legendary.
Between 1607 and 1609 Giovanni Stefano Marucelli and Filippo Palladini frescoed the façade and the vault of the arch with panoplies, grotesques and allegorical figures, in celebration of the Medici and of the Order of Saint Stephen. The clock and the bell chamber are from 1696.
For the knights of Saint Stephen the palace was an infirmary, from 1566. The head of health care was called the "Bonomo," and for this reason it is also known as the palazzo del Bonomo.
The neo-Gothic four-light window to the left of the arch dates from 1919, when Count Alberto della Gherardesca bought the palace and renovated it in neo-Gothic style. The work was judged questionable.
Since 1982 it has belonged to the Scuola Normale Superiore, which turned it into a library: an underground passage links it to the palazzo della Carovana. Inside, a museum space is devoted to Ugolino's tower: you see its surviving walls, along a route accompanied by Dante's verses.