Pisa

Pisa (pē`sä), city (1991 pop. 98,928), capital of Pisa prov., Tuscany, N central Italy, on the Arno River. It is now c.6 mi (9.7 km) from the Tyrrhenian Sea, which once reached the city. Pisa is a commercial and industrial center; manufactures include auto and truck parts, glass, pharmaceuticals, and processed food. Probably a Greek colony, later certainly an Etruscan town, it became a Roman colony (180 B.C.) and prospered. During the 9th to 11th cent. A.D. it developed into a powerful maritime republic, fighting the Arabs throughout the Mediterranean and rivaling Genoa and Venice. Pisa's political and commercial power increased upon acquisition of possessions and trading privileges in the eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades.

While competing with Genoa for the possession of Corsica and Sardinia, Pisa was crushed by the Genoese in the naval battle of Meloria (1284). As a Ghibelline center in the 13th and 14th cent., the city was also chronically at war with Florence, to which it fell in 1406. At the same time, a school of sculpture founded by Nicola Pisano flourished in Pisa and gave the city some of its great art treasures. The Council of Pisa met there in 1409. The university (founded in the 14th cent.) enjoyed a great reputation during the Renaissance; Galileo, who was born in Pisa in 1564, was a student and later a teacher there. Pisa was badly damaged in World War II but was extensively reconstructed after 1945, largely retaining the characteristic Pisan style, a variation of the Romanesque.

The most famous of Pisa's many landmarks is the marble Leaning Tower (180 ft/55 m high). Begun (1173) as the bell tower for the cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore, it started to list when three stories high, and attempts to compensate for this during construction (which was stopped several times by war) have given the tower a slightly curved shape vertically. By the 1990s the tower was tilting more than 13 ft (4 m) from vertical, and in 1993 it was shored up with 660-ton (600-metric-ton) lead counterweights. In 1995 steel cables attached to an underground platform were installed to further correct the problem, but only by gradually removing earth from underneath the tower was the tilt reduced to about 11 ft 8 in. (3.56 m) in 2001. The present restoration is predicted to preserve the tower's stability for some 300 more years.

The city's other noteworthy structures include the celebrated Pisan Romanesque cathedral (1068–1118), which has a fine marble facade, bronze panels by Bonnano Pisano, and a pulpit by Giovanni Pisano (reconstructed after a fire in 1926); the marble baptistery (1153–1278); the Camp Santo (cemetery), with frescoes of the 14th and 15th cent. (many badly damaged in World War II); and the churches of Santa Maria della Spina (early 14th cent.) and Santa Caterina. Nearby the city is the Carthusian Monastery of Pisa, with large classical cloisters.

Bibliography

See N. Shrady, Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa (2004).

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Pisa

 ancient Pisae

City (pop., 2001 prelim.: 85,379), central Italy. Located on the Arno River, Pisa probably began as an Etruscan town. It became a Roman colony c. 180 BC. A Christian bishopric by AD 313, it flourished during the Middle Ages as the principal urban centre of Tuscany. Pisa's participation in the Crusades made it a rival of Genoa and Venice. It became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. The city was the scene of heavy fighting during World War II. It is now an important railway junction. Its cathedral, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and other attractions, make it a tourist destination. It is the site of the University of Pisa (founded 1343) and the birthplace of Galileo.

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Pisa

a city in Tuscany, NW Italy, near the mouth of the River Arno: flourishing maritime republic (11th--12th centuries), contains a university (1343), a cathedral (1063), and the Leaning Tower (begun in 1174 and about 5 m (17 ft.) from perpendicular); tourism. Pop.: 89 694 (2001)

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Pisa 

a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, on the Arno River. Administrative center of Pisa Province; population, 103,600 (1971). Pisa has an international airport and is linked by a canal with the port of Livorno. The city produces railroad equipment, glass, and ceramics. There also are chemical, woollen, and garment industries. Pisa is a computer center. Galileo studied and worked at the city’s university, which was founded in 1343.

Different sources attribute the founding of Pisa to the Greeks, Ligurians, or Etruscans. In 180 B.C., Pisa became a Roman colony, and in the fourth century A.D., it became a bishopric. In the 11th century Pisa achieved government by a council; it became a commune by the middle of the 12th century. In the 14th century a seigniory was established.

Pisa gained prominence as an important trading center in the Middle Ages. In the 11th century it occupied Corsica and Sardinia. The city participated in the First Crusade (1096-99), as a result of which it received important privileges in the Orient. In 1284, Pisa’s fleet was routed at Meloria by the city’s chief rival, Genoa. This defeat led to the decline of Pisa’s sea trade and to its loss of Sardinia. In 1406 Florence seized Pisa. During the Great Western Schism the church council that elected Alexander V as pope was held in the city (1409). In 1860, together with the rest of Tuscany, Pisa became part of a united Italy.

Pisa’s Romanesque structures greatly influenced the development of medieval architecture in central Italy. The structures are marked by intricate openwork ornament (multitiered arcatures) and distinctive polychromatic (black and white marble) furnishings. Characteristically Romanesque is the ensemble of Cathedral Square, which includes the cathedral (1063-1160), the bell tower (known as the Leaning Tower, 1174-1372), and the baptistery (begun in 1153). Other notable landmarks are the Campo Santo (cemetery, begun in 1278, architect G. di Simone), the Palazzo dei Cavalieri (1576-80, architect G. Vasari), and the church of San Stefano dei Cavalieri (1565-69, architect Vasari). The San Matteo National Museum, housing Tuscan art from the 12th to 15th centuries, is located in Pisa.

REFERENCES

Masetti, A. R. Pisa: Storia urbana. Pisa, 1964.

Guerra, G. del. Pisa attraverso i secoli. Pisa, 1967.