Miracle Field (Pisa)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	Pisa
Date:	28/10/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely

Disadvantages: none

We spent a week in Pisa in December 2007, and I have no idea why I haven't written anything about this part of Italy before. I fell in love with Pisa after a one-night stand of sorts seven years prior to this last visit, during my first ever trip to Italy in 2000. We stayed one night only and arrived after dark, to depart early in the morning for a Corsica ferry from nearby Livorno. And thus my first view of the Pisan Campo dei Miracoli was a night-time one - the white marble of the wondrous buildings floodlit against the silvery-inky sky, the tat merchants and most of the tourists gone, the square itself quiet, eerie and heart achingly beautiful. The Campo certainly lived up to its name then.

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Pisa was a significant port in Roman times, and in the Middle Ages it became a significant maritime power in the western Mediterranean. It was one of the four maritime republics (and it's still often referred to as Republica Marinara and very proud of its sea traditions), the other three being Amalfi, Venice and Genoa.

The power and influence of Pisa declined with its defeat at the hands of Genoa in the late 13th century and loss of its coastal and island possessions while silting up of Arno meant it couldn't function as a viable port any more. Pisa became part of the Florentine city-state in the early 15th century and since than has been largely eclipsed by Florence.

This is why the most strikingly unique monuments in Pisa date to the medieval period, and of those the most important are on or near the vast square of Piazza del Duomo, otherwise known after the Anuzio novel as Piazza (or Campo) dei Miracoli.

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Campo dei Miracoli is the centre of the tourist interest in Pisa, and most of the city's best sights are located here or nearby, including of course the iconic Leaning Tower.

My favourite building is probably the Baptistery: a wonderful, round and somehow squat creation of white marble, combining the lower rounded Romanesque arches with the higher ones being of the pointed Gothic variety. It's the largest baptistery in Italy and was built between 12th and 14th centuries, being the second building in the Campo complex. There is a wonderful pulpit (1260) inside the Baptistery, sculpted between in the mid 13th century by Nicola Pisano, father of Giovanni (the author of the even better pulpit in the Duomo). The antique motifs make this work something of a milestone - or one of the early shoots of Renaissance in Italy.

The Duomo is the largest and most impressive if not necessarily the most beautiful building in the square, a medieval cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta (St. Mary of the Assumption). It's a seat of the archbishop of Pisa and has been for almost a thousand years. The construction of the cathedral began in the middle of the 11th century, in perfect Pisan Romanesque, with a facade of grey marble set with discs of coloured stone. The interior feels Byzantine, maybe even Oriental, with stripes of black and white stone alternating in arches heavy but reminiscent of arabesques in shapes.

The whole building is a showcase for the Pisan artists of the time, with two sets of wonderful bronze doors depicting biblical scenes and the Giovanni Pisano masterpiece pulpit mentioned above.

The Leaning Tower (or the free standing belfry of the Cathedral) is the most famous of the Pisan buildings, and and iconic image for the whole of Italy. It is certainly attractive and now - for the first time in since almost the start of its construction - remains stable after extensive engineering work and can be climbed. The views from the top (and the sheer wow factor of climbing the Leaning Tower) are definitely worth the effort (and the high price charged for the privilege).

Camposanto is one of the less well known structures on or around the square, and is essentially a enclosed cemetery. It name translates as "holy field", and it's said to be built around a pile of soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Fourth Crusade by ship. It's a huge Gothic cloister and a very weird place, although a beautiful one: a mixture of historical tombs and funerary sculptures, several chapels and a collection of numerous Roman sarcophagi.

The walls of the Camposanto used to be covered in frescoes, and some of them remain, with the Last Judgement, The Hell and The Triumph of Death by Buonamico Buffalmacco being the most fascinating: worthy of Hieronymus Bosch in its depiction of hell, gleefully relishing the sinners' torment, with devils stealing the souls of the living and the Death piling corpses around partying youths. Painted some 10 years before the Black Death swept through Europe (its effects particularly bad in the crowded and unhygienic cities), in hindsight it looks like a premonition, and to a visitor from the 21st century, an window into the medieval mindset.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo houses variety of religious art, mostly sculpture from the Duomo and other locations. It's not a must-see, but for those exploring in more depth will add additional angles of understanding.

**

There is more to Pisa than the Campo dei Miracoli.

Piazza dei Cavalieri was constructed in a Renaissance style by Cosimo I de Medici, with the Palazzo dei Cavalieri, Palazzo dell' Orologio and the church of the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano al handsome buildings creating an altogether different space from the medieval Campo dei Miracoli,

The banks of Arno, lined with what seems like an endless sequence of palazzos are very pleasant to stroll by, and on the southern bank (opposite the main part of the old town) there is a little chapel of Santa Maria della Spina, a striking Gothic contrast to the palazzos with its pointed arches, rose windows and latticed turrets.

The main shopping drag is Borgo Stretto, where old palaces now house shops, cafes and a street market takes place.

Pisa has a an university dating back to the 14th century. Its famous alumni include Galileo Galilei, who was supposed to conduct some of his experiments using the Leaning Tower; physicist Enrico Fermi and poet Giosue Carducci. The large student population gives Pisa a youthful feel, but it's not a city dominated by the university: it feels like a place with a good mixture of ages and social groups, confident in itself, not too stuffy and not too crude either. It's fairly flat, and during our stay I saw many a distinguished looking Italian in a well cut suit cycling about its partially pedestrianised centre: I have not seen as many cyclists in any other Italian city.

The university area is perhaps a little bit shabbier, but not very noticeably so and it's here that the cheapest and liveliest bars, cafes and trattorias can be found as well as the Botanic Garden - reputedly the first in the world - with a collection of rare plants from all over the world.


***

I was scared that Pisa, and its Field of Miracles would be disappointing after the initial night-time image of it I had from all those years before. It couldn't possibly live up to this dream-like memory full of wonder. Revisited seven years on, Campo dei Miracoli withstood the cold light of December (cold being a relative term here for anybody travelling from Scotland) and it remains one of my favourite - in fact, probably my very favourite - set of buildings in Italy.

Summary: superb Italian city