May 22, 2024 - Classic Italy
Pisa
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| Pisa really wasn't on the itinerary but I guess there was some extra time so we got to go to Pisa, which of course is where the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa is. I was glad to get a chance to see it. Lynnette has already seen it. |
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The short walk to the Tower was through the tourist-trap vendors.
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We first came to the Pisa Baptistery. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery; it was completed in 1363. The Pisa Baptistery is an example of the transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style: the lower section is in the Romanesque style, with rounded arches, while the upper sections are in the Gothic style, with pointed wimpergs and a rich figurative program. Like the cathedral and the campanile (Bell Tower), the Baptistery is built of bichromatic Carrara marble, white with recurring horizontal lines in blueish-grey stone.
This area is called the Piazza dei Miracoli 'Square of Miracles'), formally known as Piazza del Duomo ('Cathedral Square'). It's a walled 21.9-acre compound in central Pisa, Tuscany. It was all owned by the Catholic Church and is dominated by four great religious edifices: Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, the Leaning Tower of Pisa (the cathedral's campanile or bell tower), and the Camposanto Monumentale ('Monumental Cemetery'). Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is also the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito ('New Hospital of the Holy Spirit'), which now houses the Sinopias Museum (Museo delle Sinopie) and the Cathedral Museum (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo).
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That's our tour directory Tony in black at right.
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Standalone shot of the Pisa Baptistery.
A Babtistery is a hall or chapel situated close to, or connected with, a church, in which the sacrament of baptism is administered.
The Baptistery, like the Bell Tower, also leans slightly, point six degrees towards the Cathedral.
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| A good look at the Pisa Cathedral. |
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| No doubt about it; that tower leans quite a bit. |
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The Pisa Cathedral's facade. We did not go in.
Its construction began in 1064 to the designs of the architect Buscheto. It set the model for the distinctive Pisan Romanesque style of architecture.
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| Above the doors are four rows of open galleries with, on top, statues of the Madonna with Child and, on the corners, the Four Evangelists. |
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The massive bronze main doors were made in the workshops of Giambologna, replacing the original doors destroyed in a fire in 1595. The original central door was of bronze, executed around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano, while the other two were probably of wood. However, worshippers have never used the façade doors to enter, instead entering by way of the Saint Ranieri's Door, in front of the Leaning Tower, built around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano.
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| The last of the three major buildings on the piazza to be built, construction of the bell tower began in 1173 and took place in three stages over the course of 177 years, with the bell-chamber only added in 1372. Five years after construction began, when the building had reached the third floor level, the weak subsoil and poor foundation led to the building sinking on its south side. The building was left for a century, which allowed the subsoil to stabilise itself and prevented the building from collapsing. In 1272, to adjust the lean of the building, when construction resumed, the upper floors were built with one side taller than the other. The seventh and final floor was added in 1319. By the time the building was completed, the lean was approximately 1 degree, or 80 cm (2.5 feet) from vertical. At its greatest, measured prior to 1990, the lean measured approximately 5.5 degrees. The structure was stabilized by remedial work between 1993 and 2001, which reduced the tilt to the present 3.97 degrees. |
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| Reach for the sky! |
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We didn't go up the Tower -- looks unsafe to me! Plus we didn't have the time, just an hour to walk around the piazza.
We have seen that sculpture on the left somewhere before ....
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The flag of Pisa flies over the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
You can see people up at the top of the Tower.
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| Ah yes, I had to do it. |
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Aerial picture of the Piazza dei Miracoli with the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Picture by Arne Müseler off Wikipedia.
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