Description
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 armor.
It was built in 1583 by Francesco I de' Medici, to a design by Bernardo Buontalenti, in place of the old Medici palace near San Matteo. To make room for it, shops and even a church were demolished.
The project absorbed medieval tower-houses, partly still visible, and the palace was reworked several times in the 17th and 19th centuries. On the side remains the Gaetani tower, called the Verga d'Oro. In an alley on the left you can see the round arches of a medieval building, now low because the ground has risen.
From the courtyard you can see an ancient tower that is easier to recognize, with an arched portal in verrucano stone and small windows with pentagonal lintels. On the ground floor remain the traces of a loggia with two columns with historiated capitals, partly worn.
The Museo nazionale, open since 1989, preserves the traces of the families who lived here: paintings, portraits, furnishings, tapestries and armor.
Illustrious guests arrived with the court. Among them were Galileo Galilei, and the scientist Francesco Redi, who died here on March 1, 1697. Peter Leopold of Lorraine loved to spend the winter here, for the city's mild climate.
The name "Reale" comes from the Savoy, who stayed here after Unification. The palace passed to the Italian state in 1919.
Overpasses allowed the grand dukes to go to Mass in the nearby church of San Nicola without going down into the street. One was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War and then rebuilt; on the via Santa Maria side you can still see the passage toward the palazzo delle Vedove.
It was built in 1583 by Francesco I de' Medici, to a design by Bernardo Buontalenti, in place of the old Medici palace near San Matteo. To make room for it, shops and even a church were demolished.
The project absorbed medieval tower-houses, partly still visible, and the palace was reworked several times in the 17th and 19th centuries. On the side remains the Gaetani tower, called the Verga d'Oro. In an alley on the left you can see the round arches of a medieval building, now low because the ground has risen.
From the courtyard you can see an ancient tower that is easier to recognize, with an arched portal in verrucano stone and small windows with pentagonal lintels. On the ground floor remain the traces of a loggia with two columns with historiated capitals, partly worn.
The Museo nazionale, open since 1989, preserves the traces of the families who lived here: paintings, portraits, furnishings, tapestries and armor.
Illustrious guests arrived with the court. Among them were Galileo Galilei, and the scientist Francesco Redi, who died here on March 1, 1697. Peter Leopold of Lorraine loved to spend the winter here, for the city's mild climate.
The name "Reale" comes from the Savoy, who stayed here after Unification. The palace passed to the Italian state in 1919.
Overpasses allowed the grand dukes to go to Mass in the nearby church of San Nicola without going down into the street. One was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War and then rebuilt; on the via Santa Maria side you can still see the passage toward the palazzo delle Vedove.