A Guide to Pisa

Pisa is located in the North West of Tuscany at the mouth of the river Arno. Pisa is famous for its leaning tower, but also its position in history when it was once a great maritime power of the Mediterranean. A thousand years ago Pisa experienced its golden age, ruling a small empire which included Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics.

Later Pisa was invested by the Medici due to the splendid architecture which survives in all its glory to this very day. Campo dei Miracoli, the Field of Miracles, is where you will find the four buildings of beautiful medieval mastery: the leaning tower, the baptistery, the Duomo and the Campo Santo.

The two museums in the area, the Museo del Duomo (cathedral museum) and the Museo delle Sinopie, house some of the surviving art and sculpture from the medieval buildings. Among the most striking churches are the octagonal Sant'Agata and the Santa Maria della Spina, a Gothic masterpiece which sits on the edge of the Arno.

The Museo di San Matteo has a collection of the once local artists which include the Pisano family, Fra Angelico and Brueghel. Pisa also has a literary and scientific significance as Shelley's body was brought ashore at Gombo to be cremated on the beach, and Pisa was once home of the mathematician Fibonacci and the influential scientist Galileo Galilei.