{"id":3794,"date":"2025-09-15T16:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/?post_type=fermata&#038;p=3794"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:03:52","slug":"piazza-dei-cavalieri","status":"publish","type":"fermata","link":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/fermata\/piazza-dei-cavalieri\/","title":{"rendered":"Piazza dei Cavalieri"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Middle Ages, when this was the&nbsp;<strong>Piazza delle Sette Vie<\/strong>&nbsp;(Square of the Seven Roads), since this was the number of roads that converged here, the square was overlooked by the&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo degli Anziani&nbsp;<\/strong>(Building of the Elders), and the&nbsp;<strong>Torre Della Muda<\/strong>&nbsp;(where the eagles were kept during the moulting of their feathers) that today, together with what was once the&nbsp;<strong>Palazzotto di Giustizia&nbsp;<\/strong>(Justice Building), or of the&nbsp;<strong>Capitano<\/strong><strong>Del Popolo&nbsp;<\/strong>(People&#8217;s Captain), forms the&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo dell&#8217;Orologio&nbsp;<\/strong>(The Watch Building). All around there were also numerous houses, tower houses and two churches from the 11th century: San Pietro in Cortevecchia and San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori. In 1558, Cosimo I of the Medici family gave&nbsp;<strong>Giorgio Vasari<\/strong>&nbsp;the task of remodelling the square to make it the heart of his power and the seat of the&nbsp;<strong>Order of the Knights&nbsp;<\/strong>of<strong>&nbsp;Santo Stefano (1562)<\/strong>, a military-chivalric order devoted to the defence of the Catholic faith called to fight the infidels in the Mediterranean. Today, it houses the prestigious&nbsp;<strong>Scuola Normale Superiore&nbsp;<\/strong>(Higher Education School)<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>of Pisa.The&nbsp;<strong>buildings<\/strong>&nbsp;in the square: Vasari based his redevelopment and restoration choices on the concepts of<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>symmetry, regularity and decorative elegance, which were inspired by theatrical scenography and ephemeral apparatuses that were so popular at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo dell&#8217; Orologio<\/strong>&nbsp;(Watch Palace), or&nbsp;<strong>of the Bonomo<\/strong>, was the knights&#8217; infirmary: the fa\u00e7ade still reveals a cycle of allegorical frescoes painted by Filippo Palladini and Giovanni Stefano Marucelli and at the first level a plaque commemorates the events of<strong>&nbsp;Count Ugolino della<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Gherardesca<\/strong>, who was imprisoned and starved here, as per Dante&#8217;s quote. The clock, originally located on the bell tower of the church of the Knights, was<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>installed here in 1696. Today the building houses the library of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Higher Education School).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo della Carovana<\/strong>&nbsp;was the seat of the&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo degli Anziani&nbsp;<\/strong>(Building of the Elders) in the Middle Ages, consisting of nine towered structures subsequently assembled into a single palace. The Elders were judges and administrators of the Pisan Republic. Giorgio Vasari designed a graffiti decoration, where we find allegories, zodiac signs and mythological figures linked to the power of the Medici. The half busts of the Grand Dukes and the great coats of arms are the work of various artists, including Giovan Battista&nbsp;<strong>Foggini<\/strong>, Stoldo Lorenzi and Giovanni Fancelli. The term&nbsp;<em>Carovana<\/em>&nbsp;derives from the training course followed by the knights. Today it is the headquarters of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Higher Education School) of Pisa.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The large&nbsp;<strong>statue<\/strong>&nbsp;of Cosimo I de\u2019 Medici wearing the clothes of the Knights of Santo Stefano and rests his foot on a dolphin, a symbol of the sea (a reference to the domination over what was once the Pisan Maritime Republic), was sculpted by&nbsp;<strong>Pietro Francavilla<\/strong>&nbsp;between 1594 and 1596. The statue rests on a pedestal and faces a fountain, known as the&nbsp;<strong>fountain of the hunchback<\/strong>, due to the curious shape of the half-bust from which the water pours out.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>church&nbsp;<\/strong>of<strong>&nbsp;Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri<\/strong>&nbsp;was built starting in 1565 on a project by Vasari and took the place of the ancient church of San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori (11th century). The fa\u00e7ade was finished in the seventeenth century, while the lateral bodies were added only in 1934. The bell tower was erected in 1572 by Giovanni Fancelli. The single-chamber interior displays numerous trophies of the naval battles of the Medici fleet, fragments of boats and&nbsp;<strong>flags&nbsp;<\/strong>from the&nbsp;<strong>battle<\/strong>&nbsp;of<strong>&nbsp;Lepanto<\/strong>, including the one that was waving from the mast of the ship of Mehmet Al\u00ec Pasci\u00e0. The monochromes on the walls narrate the life of the Saint, while the small&nbsp;<strong>Pulpit<\/strong>&nbsp;by Chiarissimo Fancelli (1627) is the one that was placed in the Cathedral to replace the Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano, following the 1595 fire. Among the works of great prestige is&nbsp;<em>The Stoning of Santo Stefano<\/em>&nbsp;by Giorgio Vasari of 1571 and the&nbsp;<em>Nativity of Christ<\/em>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<strong>Bronzino<\/strong>&nbsp;of 1564 (in the left nave). In addition, there are the military episodes of the Order depicted in the paintings of the wooden ceiling created by Bartolomeo Atticciati, by artists of the calibre of Cigoli and Jacopo Ligozzi. The&nbsp;<em>altar<\/em>&nbsp;by Foggini frames the&nbsp;<em>urn<\/em>&nbsp;that preserves the relics of Santo Stefano. The reliquary bust of San Lussorio, by&nbsp;<strong>Donatello<\/strong>, is now in the National Museum of San Matteo.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo della Canonica<\/strong>&nbsp;dei Cavalieri sacerdoti (The Presbitery of the Knight Priests) hides a large porch overlooking vegetable and flower gardens separated by high walls just like in the Middle Ages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo del Consiglio dei Dodici&nbsp;<\/strong>(Palace of the Council of Twelve), built by Pietro Francavilla, was once the seat of the&nbsp;<strong>Chancellery<\/strong>&nbsp;of the Republic, and later the court of the Order. Inside there are documents and memorabilia related to the Order, as well as a beautiful&nbsp;<strong>cycle of frescoes&nbsp;<\/strong>by Pietro Paolo Lippi and Antonio Giusti, dated 1680-1682, and located in the Audience Hall. The wooden ceiling of the hall is embellished with works by&nbsp;<strong>Ventura<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Salimbeni<\/strong>&nbsp;and recent restoration works have brought to light an Assumption of Mary by the&nbsp;<strong>Ghirlandaio<\/strong>&nbsp;school.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The square is closed by the&nbsp;<strong>Collegio Puteano<\/strong>, founded in 1605 by archbishop Antonio dal Pozzo to host some Biellese students at the University of Pisa and the small&nbsp;<strong>church&nbsp;<\/strong>of&nbsp;<strong>San Rocco,&nbsp;<\/strong>built in the 16th century over the medieval church of San Pietro in Cortevecchia (mentioned since 1028).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The<strong>&nbsp;Scuola Normale Superiore<\/strong>&nbsp;of Pisa has its main office right in Piazza dei Cavalieri. The school was founded by Napoleonic decree in 1810 as an academic pension for university students and a branch of the&nbsp;<em>\u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure<\/em>&nbsp;of Paris. The first seat was the convent of San Silvestro and the term&nbsp;<em>Normale<\/em>&nbsp;refers to the&nbsp;<strong>rules<\/strong>&nbsp;that were to educate citizens about obedience, laws and the Emperor. Over the course of the centuries, the school has seen various events, was suppressed and opened again and its statute has undergone a number of revisions until 2014, the year that defined the subdivision of the school into three academic structures:&nbsp;<em>Human Sciences<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Mathematic and Natural Sciences<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Institute of Human and Social Sciences<\/em>. It is an elite school based on equality, attended by students from all over the world, which can be accessed following an exam. Every year few are admitted but over the centuries important scientists, writers, politicians, economists and men of culture, who have made history in our country, have graduated from this school, such as Tiziano Terzani, Antonio Tabucchi and Nobel Prize winners&nbsp;<strong>Giosu\u00e8 Carducci<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Enrico Fermi<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Carlo Rubbia<\/strong>.The&nbsp;<strong>Palazzo dell&#8217;Orologio<\/strong>, one of the buildings overlooking the square, still shows the signs of its medieval structures. Under the arch of Gualandi to the right, we can notice the corner of a Verruca stone tower: it is the tower of Gualandi, known as the Muda tower in the Middle Ages, but made famous by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy as the Torre della Fame (Tower of Hunger). It was the prison that hosted Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, the alleged traitor of his homeland, who died here in 1289 together with his children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cit.<em>&nbsp;La bocca sollev\u00f2 dal fiero pasto<\/em><br><em>quel peccator, forbendola a&#8217; capelli<\/em><br><em>del capo ch&#8217;elli avea di retro guasto.<\/em><br><em>(\u2026)<\/em><br><em>Tu dei saper ch\u2019i\u2019 fui conte Ugolino,<\/em><br><em>e questi \u00e8 l\u2019arcivescovo Ruggieri:<\/em><br><em>or ti dir\u00f2 perch\u00e9 i son tal vicino.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Che per l\u2019effetto de\u2019 suo\u2019 mai pensieri,<\/em><br><em>fidandomi di lui, io fossi preso<\/em><br><em>e poscia morto, dir non \u00e8 mestieri;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>per\u00f2 quel che non puoi avere inteso,<\/em><br><em>cio\u00e8 come la morte mia fu cruda,<\/em><br><em>udirai, e saprai s\u2019e\u2019 m\u2019 ha offeso.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Breve pertugio dentro da la Muda,<\/em><br><em>la qual per me ha \u2019l titol de la fame,<\/em><br><em>e che conviene ancor ch\u2019altrui si chiuda,<\/em><br><em>(\u2026)<\/em><br><em>Quand\u2019ebbe detto ci\u00f2, con li occhi torti<\/em><br><em>riprese \u2019l teschio misero co\u2019 denti,<\/em><br><em>che furo a l\u2019osso, come d\u2019un can, forti.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Ahi Pisa, vituperio de le genti<\/em><br><em>del bel paese l\u00e0 dove &#8216;l s\u00ec suona,<\/em><em><\/em><br><em>poi che i vicini a te punir son lenti,<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>muovasi la Capraia e la Gorgona,<\/em><em><\/em><br><em>e faccian siepe ad Arno in su la foce,<\/em><em><\/em><br><em>s\u00ec ch\u2019elli annieghi in te ogne persona!<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Che se \u2019l conte Ugolino aveva voce<\/em><br><em>d\u2019aver tradita te de le castella,<\/em><br><em>non dovei tu i figli suoi porre a tal croce.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dante Alighieri<\/strong>,&nbsp;<em>La Divina Commedia<\/em>, Inferno, canto XXXIIIAmong the historical buildings of Piazza dei Cavalieri the&nbsp;<strong>church&nbsp;<\/strong>of&nbsp;<strong>Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri&nbsp;<\/strong>stands out. The church was built starting from 1565 on a design by Vasari and took the place of the ancient church of San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori (11th century). The fa\u00e7ade was finished in the seventeenth century while the lateral bodies were added only in 1934. The bell tower was erected by Giovanni Fancelli in 1572. The single-chamber interior displays numerous&nbsp;<strong>trophies&nbsp;<\/strong>of the naval battkles of the<strong>&nbsp;Medici fleet<\/strong>, fragments of boats and<strong>&nbsp;flags<\/strong>&nbsp;from the<strong>&nbsp;battle of Lepanto<\/strong>, including the one that was waving<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>from the mast of the ship of Mehmet Al\u00ec Pasci\u00e0. Flags that taken from the infidels in clashes with the Turks. The monochromes on the walls narrate the life of the Saint, while the small Pulpit by Chiarissimo Fancelli (1627) is the one that was placed in the Cathedral to replace the Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano, following the fire of 1595. Among the works of great prestige there is&nbsp;<em>The Lapidation<\/em><em>of Santo Stefano&nbsp;<\/em>by Giorgio Vasari of 1571 and the<em>&nbsp;Nativity of Christ&nbsp;<\/em>by Bronzino of 1564<em>&nbsp;<\/em>(in the<em>&nbsp;<\/em>left nave), as well as the military episodes of the Order depicted in the paintings of the wooden ceiling created by Bartolomeo Atticciati, by artists like Cigoli and Jacopo Ligozzi. The&nbsp;<em>altar<\/em>&nbsp;by Foggini frames the&nbsp;<em>urn<\/em>&nbsp;that preserves the relics of Santo Stefano. The reliquary bust of San Lussorio (San Rossore), by&nbsp;<strong>Donatello<\/strong>, is now in the National Museum of San Matteo..Piazza dei Cavalieri was the set for the scenes of some cinematographic films:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><em>L\u2019amica geniale<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;(My brilliant friend) (7th episode, II season of the TV series, 2019). Len\u00f9, one of the<strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong>protagonists, studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore, whose main office is located here, in the Palazzo della Carovana: some scenes were shot in this square and inside the palace.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><em>Ora o mai pi\u00f9&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong>(Now or Never) (2003) directed by Lucio Pellegrini, screenplay by Pisan Roan Johnson, with<strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong>Violante Placido, Elio Germano, and Riccardo Scamarcio. The film is largely shot in Pisa, the protagonists are university students who go from the occupation of a social centre to parties, debates, and finally end up at the G8 in Genoa. In a scene in Piazza dei Miracoli, a banner unfolds from the top of the tower of Pisa, a symbol of this student\u2019s struggle, with the words:&nbsp;<em>This is straight, it is the world that is warped<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading hasmeta\" id=\"audioguida\">Audio guide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PIAZZA-DEI-CAVALIERI-ENG.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3793,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"linea":[21],"class_list":["post-3794","fermata","type-fermata","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","linea-points-of-interest"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fermata\/3794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fermata"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fermata"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"linea","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/percorsi-turistici.comune.pisa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/linea?post=3794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}