Miracles of Pisa

Flashback to Summer

The sky in the Netherlands is covered in a blanket of clouds, and even if the temperature is up to a whooping 10 degrees (an unprecedent occurrence in February, to a Finn), I find myself missing summer so badly. We are still in a strict lockdown, so any simulated summer experiences in the form of swimming in a pool or going to a sauna can only be dreamed of. As I can’t travel to the future, I travel back in time to a past summer and re-visit a trip me and my Italian beloved did around Tuscany. You can read about our visit to Florence here, but this post takes you along to his city of origin looking at some miracles of Pisa.

I love Italy and choosing my favorite among Italian cities is an impossible task. Miracles of Pisa would be high up on my list, though, because this city is both spectacularly beautiful and has a unique personality of its own. If it would be a person, it would be an old wise bohemian woman with a lot of stories in her backbag and a quirky sparkle in her eyes, ready to sweep you off your feet like she did to everyone in her twenties. In this post, I’m going to focus on the most important Pisan landmarks -there is more to see, but here, we start from the basics.

Miracles of Pisa: Piazza dei Miracoli

Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli is a walled 8.87 hectare area representing the most remarkable assemblage of Romanesque architecture in Italy, proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. The square lies along the north western edge along the fortified city wall right next to the city center of Pisa. This is the place you of course need to visit when you come to Pisa, and I actually recommend doing so multiple days at different times of the day. In the night time, the buildings are beautifully lit and you can observe their beauty against the dark sky without too many tourists around. In the daytime, you find yourself surrounded by shining marble and the emerald green grass that is drawing people to lie on it, despite (or perhaps because of) the signs telling them not to do that.

On the piazza, there are three buildings that symbolize the main phases of human life: The Baptistery (birth), the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (life), and Camposanto, the cemetery (death). The famous leaning tower of Pisa can be counted as the fourth, as it is a separate building, even if it is technically the bell tower of the Cathedral.

As is traditional in Italian cities, also this square was originally called Piazza del Duomo. Then, the Italian writer and poet Gabriele d’Annunzio described the piazza as the “prato dei Miracoli”, “meadow of miracles” in his 1910 novel “Forse che sì forse che no”. The rest is history.

The most recent changes to the piazza were conducted during the Fascist era. The monument She-Wolf of Rome was put on the grass north of the bell tower. 17 cypresses were planted east of the square in memory of the soldiers who fell in the war.

Before the Florentine siege in the 15th century, it was possible to enter the square through the Porta del Leone, but it was closed by the Florentines when they built the current door, Porta Santa Maria. During the Medici era and the Lorraine dominance, the monumental buildings of the piazza were surrounded by the construction of many other. They were knocked down at the end of the 19th century when the architect Alessandro Gheradesca reorganized the square and gave it the look it still has.

The Cathedral

The first building constructed on this magnificent piazza was Duomo di Pisa, The Cathedral of Santa Maria, dedicated to the Assumption of the Holy Mary. It was designed by the architect Buscheto, and its construction began in 1094. The Cathedral was completed in the 19th century, when the architect Alessandro Gherardesca gave the piazza its final touch. The cathedral is an impressive example of Pisan Romanesque architecture resting on a white marble pavement. The church is also known as the Primartial; the archbishop of Pisa has been a Primate since the year 1092.

At the time of the Cathedral’s construction, Pisa was a maritime republic (from the 11th century through to the 15th century); sailors traveled in the Arab world and took inspiration of all the beautiful things they saw. The building has drawn influence of many cultures and styles. The mosaics and the arches show a Byzantine influence, and it has an Islamic-inspired dome and a matching domed baptistery. Worshippers have never entered the church through the main facade doors but through the Porta di San Ranieri located in front of the bell tower.

The cathedral is made of gray and white striped marble and bristles with columns and arches. The facade by Rainaldo is built of grey marble and white stone set with coloured marble discs. The big bronze doors were made in the workshops of Giambologna and replaced the original ones that were destroyed in the 1595 fire. The cathedral has two aisles on either side of the nave, and its transept has three aisles. The interior of the Cathedral is faced with black and white marble. It has a gilded ceiling and a beautifully frescoed dome.

In a fire in 1595, most of the Renaissance art inside was tragically destroyed, but many remarkable works of art are still preserved. These include the mosaic “Christ in Majesty” with mosaics from Monreale in Sicily; St. John’s head by Cimabue in 1301; the pulpit, a true 14th century masterpiece by Giovanni Pisano. During the Cathedral’s redecoration, the pulpit was packed away and rediscovered in 1926. The present pulpit is a reconstruction of the original medieval masterpiece.

The Cathedral has an important role in determining the beginning of the Pisan new year. Between the 10th century and the year 1749, Pisa had in use its own calendar, where the first day of the year was 25th of March, the day of the Annunciation of Holy Mary. The Pisan new year begins nine months before the regular one, and the exact moment is determined by a ray of sun falling through a window on the left above the famous pulpit.

The legend says that Galileo Galilei formulated his theory about the pendulum movement when he was watching the swinging of an incense lamp hanging from the nave’s ceiling. The current lamp is much bigger and is now kept in a chapel in the Camposanto. Did you know that Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa and hence, this philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer counts as one of the miracles of Pisa?

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The most famous of the miracles of Pisa might be the leaning tower of Pisa. It is one of the best-known architectural achievements of Medieval Europe, but the name of the architect behind the tower is still a mystery. Torre pendente di Pisa is actually the bell tower, campanile, of the cathedral. The construction of this final structure of the cathedral complex began in 1173 and went on in three stages during 177 years because of the challenges posed by the leaning of the tower and the onset of a series of wars. The bell chamber was added in 1372.

The majestic white marble tower reaches up to 56 metres from the ground. Only five years after the construction had began -and when only three of its eight stories had been completed- the poor foundations built on a soft, shifting subsoil caused the building to sink on the south side. As a war broke out between the city-states of Italy, the construction got halted for nearly a century. Leaving the structure alone for a century allowed the subsoil to stabilize and prevented the construction from a total collapse.

Giovanni di Simone was the engineer in charge when the construction of the tower was resumed. He sought to balance out the leaning by making the new stories stand taller on the short side of the campanile. This plan did not turn out so well, because the extra masonry caused the structure only to sink further. Over the next four centuries, the seven bells of the tower were installed, the biggest of them weighing a massive 3600 kg. By the beginning of the 20th century, the heavier bells were made silent, because it was thought that they could worsen the leaning with their movement.

There have been many suggestions concerning how to straighten the tower. These include de-constructing the whole tower stone by stone and then rebuilding the whole wedding cake at a different location altogether. In the 1920’s, the grounds were injected with cement, which managed to stabilize the tower to some extent. Despite many attempts to straighten the tower, in the late 20th century, the structure continued to be subsiding at 1,2 millimeters per year, causing the tower to be in danger of collapsing. Until the year 1990, the tower was leaning at about a 10 degrees angle. In that year, the tower was closed and all of its bells silenced. Engineers began a major straightening project, and the lean was decreased by 44 cm. The project was completed in May 2001, and the campanile reopened to visitors.

The tower continued to straighten without further excavations, but in May 2008, sensors started to signal that the motion had stopped at a total improvement of the leaning by 48 cm. Hence, with a lot of work, the lean has been reduced to less than 4.0 degrees.

The tower consists of 207 columns ranged around eight stories, and its bottom consists of 15 marble arches. Each of the next stories contains 30 arches that surround the tower. Twin spiral staircases of 297 steps line the tower’s interior leading to the bell chamber on the top. For a person with claustrophobia (like myself), climbing up the stairs can be a little bit of a challenge, but the views you get through small windows on your way up are worthwhile. Climbing the staircase slowly helped me to adjust to the leaning bit by bit, and when I reached the top, I did not find myself in quite such a dramatic leaning angle as I had presumed. Hence, it was merely the height of the tower that forced me to sit down and recuperate for a moment. Apparently I was pretty white in the face as my partner went dutifully around the tower photographing so that I could at least enjoy the views better back home looking at the pictures!

The Baptistery and the Camposanto

The second building added to the complex was the baptistery, which lies west of the dome. The Baptistery is the biggest one in Italy and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The construction of this round Romanesque building started in 1152 under the supervision of the architect Diotisalvi and was finished in the 14th century. The Baptistery stands in front of the cathedral and was revisited by Nicola Pisano and his son, Giovanni, in the middle of the 13th century. The father and the son changed the baptistery by adding some Gothic elements, a cupola and a lodge. The interior of the baptistery is immense and very plain.

In the midst of the baptistery, there stands the octagonal baptismal font by Guido Bigarelli da Como dating back to the 1246. The font takes the center stage as natural light falls upon it from a hole in the ceiling. The bronze sculpture of St. John the Baptist by Italo Griselli stands at the center of the font. The pulpit sculpted by Nicola Pisano, the most notable precursor or the Italian renaissance, in 1255-1260 depicts famous scenes of the classical naked Hercules. The Italian Renaissance is usually seen to begin on 1260, the year when Nicola Pisano dated the pulpit.

The acoustics are amazing, and if you are lucky enough, you will get to hear someone demonstrate it by singing. When we were there, I presume a priest came and let out a little tune at the center; the way his voice crept up and bounced in the stone walls was a chillingly beautiful experience. One of the miracles of Pisa you cannot plan ahead, a magical moment that just happens, lasts for a few seconds, and vanishes away.

The graveyard is an ancient monumental cemetery on the north side of the piazza. Its construction began in 1277 by the architect Giovanni di Simone. Its earth is said to be brought back from Golgotha during the Crusades to make sure the noble Pisans could have their final rest in holy ground. Within the cloister, there are sarcophagi and Roman graves used to bury the prestigious men. Beneath the floor, there are graves of the nobles of Pisa. The visitor meets many artwork including the famous Della Robbia tabernacle, Triumph of Death.

Take your time to admire miracles of Pisa on this piazza -it’s wisest to plan to spend at least half a day if not a whole day there. After your visit to all these marble miracles, you could throw yourself down on the grass behind the Baptistery and take in some Tuscany son from the ever so blue skies. It’s prohibited, but nobody stops you and everyone else is doing the same thing. . Remember to come back in the evening to see everything in even more magical lighting.

Of course, there is much more to miracles of Pisa than this spectacular piazza, but it’s good to know where to start from. Here is a link where you can book tickets in advance: https://www.tiqets.com/en/square-of-miracles-meeting-point-tickets-l145809/

Let us end with a picture of a steaming hot summer night in Pisa. If I had to choose my favorite immaterial one of the miracles of Pisa, I would perhaps choose the light. The way it plays on not only the buildings of the Piazza dei Miracoli but also elsewhere, like on the river Arno, is unique in a way I can’t quite explain.