Description
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. Facades tidied up by Vasari, palaces of brick and marble, and students everywhere.
The Palazzo della Carovana has a sgraffito facade and niches with the busts of the grand dukes of Tuscany.
Next to it is Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, the order's church, with a facade designed by Don Giovanni de' Medici, Cosimo I's illegitimate son. Inside it keeps flags and standards taken from Islamic vessels, including that of the flagship captured at Lepanto in 1571.
The Palazzo dell'Orologio has swallowed up the tower of the Muda, or of Hunger, where Count Ugolino died in 1289. According to legend he first ate his sons and grandsons; Dante made it one of the most famous cantos of the Inferno. In the middle of the square stands the statue of Cosimo I by Pietro Francavilla, from 1596.
In the Middle Ages it was the square of the Seven Roads, named for the streets that reached it like rays, and from around 1140 the heart of the Commune; already in Lombard times the gastald, the king's official, lived here. Blacksmiths worked here, and here in 1406 an envoy from Florence proclaimed the end of Pisan independence.
After 1254, when the Popolo took power, the palace of the Popolo and the Anziani rose here, today's Carovana. The captain of the Popolo lived in the nearby Palazzo dell'Orologio, formerly the Gualandi's.
In 1558 Cosimo I chose it as the seat of the Knights of St. Stephen, the order he had founded, and called in Giorgio Vasari. The medieval buildings, born, in his words, "in confusion and disorder", were joined together and clad with elegance.
To make room for the church Vasari demolished the old one of San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori, mentioned as early as 1074. The Palazzo dei Priori was completed in 1603 by Pietro Francavilla, the same who made the statue, and the church was decorated in the 17th century with canvases by the great Florentine masters.
The knights are gone, but their palaces are full of students. Between 1912 and 1952 even the tram ran through the square.
Don't miss
• The Palazzo della Carovana.
• Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri.
• The Palazzo dell'Orologio.
• The statue of Cosimo I.
Did you know?
• It was once thought that the Roman forum stood here, but excavations found no trace of it.
• Of the seven roads in the old name, only five reach it today.
The Palazzo della Carovana has a sgraffito facade and niches with the busts of the grand dukes of Tuscany.
Next to it is Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, the order's church, with a facade designed by Don Giovanni de' Medici, Cosimo I's illegitimate son. Inside it keeps flags and standards taken from Islamic vessels, including that of the flagship captured at Lepanto in 1571.
The Palazzo dell'Orologio has swallowed up the tower of the Muda, or of Hunger, where Count Ugolino died in 1289. According to legend he first ate his sons and grandsons; Dante made it one of the most famous cantos of the Inferno. In the middle of the square stands the statue of Cosimo I by Pietro Francavilla, from 1596.
In the Middle Ages it was the square of the Seven Roads, named for the streets that reached it like rays, and from around 1140 the heart of the Commune; already in Lombard times the gastald, the king's official, lived here. Blacksmiths worked here, and here in 1406 an envoy from Florence proclaimed the end of Pisan independence.
After 1254, when the Popolo took power, the palace of the Popolo and the Anziani rose here, today's Carovana. The captain of the Popolo lived in the nearby Palazzo dell'Orologio, formerly the Gualandi's.
In 1558 Cosimo I chose it as the seat of the Knights of St. Stephen, the order he had founded, and called in Giorgio Vasari. The medieval buildings, born, in his words, "in confusion and disorder", were joined together and clad with elegance.
To make room for the church Vasari demolished the old one of San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori, mentioned as early as 1074. The Palazzo dei Priori was completed in 1603 by Pietro Francavilla, the same who made the statue, and the church was decorated in the 17th century with canvases by the great Florentine masters.
The knights are gone, but their palaces are full of students. Between 1912 and 1952 even the tram ran through the square.
Don't miss
• The Palazzo della Carovana.
• Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri.
• The Palazzo dell'Orologio.
• The statue of Cosimo I.
Did you know?
• It was once thought that the Roman forum stood here, but excavations found no trace of it.
• Of the seven roads in the old name, only five reach it today.