| The splendour
of Pisa developed in about 1000 and it did not last for a long time:
the defeat inflected by Genoa in 1284 marked the loss of the supremacy in the
Tyrrhenian Sea and the beginning of a crisis which culminated in the subjection in Florence (1405).
But in 1063, when the Pisan fleet defeated the Muslims in Palermo, the city decreed the building of a
cathedral dedicated to the Virgin, who had protected the enterprise.. |
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| The place chosen was atypical,
a peripheral area, sheltered from the floods of the Arno.
The biggest architectural set of the Romantic Europe, the “Campo dei Miracoli”,
was built here: the cathedral was planned by Buscheto and made even more magnificent by Rainaldo in the XII century,
who carried out the front, while the pulpit (1301-11) is by Giovanni Pisano.
The Baptistry is in harmonious relation to the cathedral, |
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| the forms of the cathedral's
front also inspired the original lodge structure of the bell tower
(the “Leaning Tower”, built between 1173 and the end of ‘300),
very famous for its ancient leaning which hindered to reach the 70 m
in height of the initial project. Although later, the Churchyard is linked
to the other buildings of the square for the clarity of the volumes and the
typical blind arches. |
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