Description
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 Ettore Ferrari, cast in Rome at the Crescenzi foundry and unveiled on June 26, 1892. Garibaldi is life-size, with no heroic posing, but with a noble and proud bearing.
The base carries three episodes from the life of the "hero of two worlds": Rome or Death, Aspromonte, where he was wounded, and Pisa, where he was welcomed and cared for. On the front is the dedication: "Pisa a Garibaldi MDCCCXCII."
Until the end of the 19th century the square was called Ponte di Mezzo, and it held the Loggia dei Galletti, from which via dei Setaioli, today's Lungarno Mediceo, set off. At the far end, on the corner with Borgo Stretto, stands the 18th-century Casino dei Nobili, which from the middle of the century hosted the meeting place of the city's nobility.
On either side were the city's oldest hotels: the Locanda delle Tre Donzelle, later the Grand Hotel de l'Arno, and the Hotel Europa. Van Lint's photography studio also had a premises here.
It is also a gateway to the old town. From vicolo delle Donzelle you reach piazza delle Vettovaglie and early medieval Pisa. From Borgo Stretto, announced by the Madonna dei Vetturini, a wooden copy of a work by Nino Pisano, you head toward the Sant'Anna and San Francesco districts.
From piazza del Pozzetto you enter the theater district instead, along the medieval via dei Rigattieri.
During the Gioco del Ponte, the square is the base camp of Tramontana, the northern half of the city, while piazza XX Settembre, across the river, is that of Mezzogiorno. This is where the most important decisions of the contest are made.
The statue is by Ettore Ferrari, cast in Rome at the Crescenzi foundry and unveiled on June 26, 1892. Garibaldi is life-size, with no heroic posing, but with a noble and proud bearing.
The base carries three episodes from the life of the "hero of two worlds": Rome or Death, Aspromonte, where he was wounded, and Pisa, where he was welcomed and cared for. On the front is the dedication: "Pisa a Garibaldi MDCCCXCII."
Until the end of the 19th century the square was called Ponte di Mezzo, and it held the Loggia dei Galletti, from which via dei Setaioli, today's Lungarno Mediceo, set off. At the far end, on the corner with Borgo Stretto, stands the 18th-century Casino dei Nobili, which from the middle of the century hosted the meeting place of the city's nobility.
On either side were the city's oldest hotels: the Locanda delle Tre Donzelle, later the Grand Hotel de l'Arno, and the Hotel Europa. Van Lint's photography studio also had a premises here.
It is also a gateway to the old town. From vicolo delle Donzelle you reach piazza delle Vettovaglie and early medieval Pisa. From Borgo Stretto, announced by the Madonna dei Vetturini, a wooden copy of a work by Nino Pisano, you head toward the Sant'Anna and San Francesco districts.
From piazza del Pozzetto you enter the theater district instead, along the medieval via dei Rigattieri.
During the Gioco del Ponte, the square is the base camp of Tramontana, the northern half of the city, while piazza XX Settembre, across the river, is that of Mezzogiorno. This is where the most important decisions of the contest are made.