Since the beginning of tourism,
PISA
has been known for just one thing -
the
Leaning Tower , which
serves around the world as a
shorthand image for Italy. It is
indeed a freakishly beautiful
building, a sight whose impact no
amount of prior knowledge can blunt.
Yet it is just a single component of
Pisa's breathtaking
Campo dei
Miracoli , or Field of Miracles,
where the
Duomo, Baptistry
and
Camposanto complete a
dazzling architectural ensemble.
These, and a dozen or so churches
and palazzi scattered about the
historic centre, belong to Pisa's
"Golden Age", from the
eleventh to the thirteenth
centuries, when the city was one of
the maritime powers of the
Mediterranean. The so-called "Pisan
Romanesque"
architecture
of this period, with its black and
white marble facades inspired by the
Moorish designs of Andalucia, is
complemented by some of the finest
medieval
sculpture in Italy,
much of it from the workshops of
Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. The
city's political zenith came late in
the eleventh century with a series
of victories over the
Saracens
: the Pisans brought back from Arab
cultures long-forgotten ideas of
science, architecture and
philosophy. Decline set in with
defeat by the Genoese in 1284,
followed by the silting-up of Pisa's
harbour. From 1406 the city was
governed by Florence, whose Medici
rulers re-established the University
of Pisa, one of the intellectual
forcing houses of the Renaissance;
Galileo
was one of the teachers there.
Subsequent centuries saw Pisa fade
into provinciality.
