Description
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 quiet again.
To the south stands the Palazzo della Sapienza, the university's historic seat, begun in 1486 by Lorenzo de' Medici and completed in 1543 by Cosimo I. It houses the Law faculty and, since 1823, the University Library. The present façade dates from the 1930s.
Opposite stands the building of the Cassa di Risparmio, for which the square itself was conceived. On the west side opens the passage toward the Teatro Rossi, once the Regio, and toward piazza Carrara.
In the two flower beds grow different trees, almost a small wood in front of the Sapienza. In front of the Cassa di Risparmio stand out the palms planted in the 1920s, and a large prickly pear, put there in secret in 1999 by an unauthorized gardener.
Unlike almost all medieval squares, this one did not arise spontaneously: it was an urban-planning project of the early 20th century, which demolished a whole neighborhood. Among the buildings that disappeared was the church of Sant'Isidoro, documented from 1030 and reduced to an oratory at the end of the 16th century.
Before that, in the 14th century, this was the piazza del Grano, with porticoes and workshops. When Lorenzo de' Medici moved the university onto the site, the grain trade moved to the piazza dei Porci, today's piazza delle Vettovaglie.
Something remains beneath the lawn. The 1991 excavations brought to light part of the walls of the church of Sant'Isidoro and the foundations of houses from the 11th and 12th centuries, on a street that ran where via Paoli passes today.
Today's layout dates from the 1990s, designed by the Landucci-Bortolozzi studio: lawn flower beds, marble furnishings, the old paving reused.
To the south stands the Palazzo della Sapienza, the university's historic seat, begun in 1486 by Lorenzo de' Medici and completed in 1543 by Cosimo I. It houses the Law faculty and, since 1823, the University Library. The present façade dates from the 1930s.
Opposite stands the building of the Cassa di Risparmio, for which the square itself was conceived. On the west side opens the passage toward the Teatro Rossi, once the Regio, and toward piazza Carrara.
In the two flower beds grow different trees, almost a small wood in front of the Sapienza. In front of the Cassa di Risparmio stand out the palms planted in the 1920s, and a large prickly pear, put there in secret in 1999 by an unauthorized gardener.
Unlike almost all medieval squares, this one did not arise spontaneously: it was an urban-planning project of the early 20th century, which demolished a whole neighborhood. Among the buildings that disappeared was the church of Sant'Isidoro, documented from 1030 and reduced to an oratory at the end of the 16th century.
Before that, in the 14th century, this was the piazza del Grano, with porticoes and workshops. When Lorenzo de' Medici moved the university onto the site, the grain trade moved to the piazza dei Porci, today's piazza delle Vettovaglie.
Something remains beneath the lawn. The 1991 excavations brought to light part of the walls of the church of Sant'Isidoro and the foundations of houses from the 11th and 12th centuries, on a street that ran where via Paoli passes today.
Today's layout dates from the 1990s, designed by the Landucci-Bortolozzi studio: lawn flower beds, marble furnishings, the old paving reused.