Hubby was in charge of loading the machines while I headed to the store to get detergent and change for the machines. All was ready on my return, and in about 1 hour we would be off to be tourist. NOT. When I went to put my clothes back in the suitcase, I found the bulk of my dirty clothes still in there. Dearest hubby had thought I had only brought the suitcase to put my cleaned clothes in. So another hour in the laundromat and we were now off to be tourists.
A short walk and we were in Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), where the Leaning Tower is found, as well as the Duomo (domed church), Baptistery and the Camposanto Monumentale (the monumental cemetery).
All four buildings we visited. starting on the left, the long flat building is the Camposanto,
the Baptistery is the domed building in the foreground,
the Duomo is to the right with it's dome in the background,
and finally the Tower is to the right side behind the Duomo.
This is the first time we have seen manicured grounds around a historic building that are as vast as this and that people are allowed on. It was nice to see people using the grounds to sit and relax on, have something to eat or drink, allow kids to run around on, and others to play impromptu games of soccer.
A lion watching over the complex - at the Porte de Leone (Lion Gate)
The Duomo Pisa (Cathedral Pisa) is the largest Romanesque church in Tuscany.
It was built between the years of 1093-1118.
The large pulpit was built by Giovanni Pisano between 1302-11.
Very modern altar
Bands of marble often seen in churches and other buildings in this region
Modernistic lectern in on of the side altars
side altar with the casket of a Saint of the area
The saint himself preserved in a glass fronted casket
The Baptistery of St. John (Battistero di San Giovanni) started construction in 1152,
in replacement of an older baptistery and was completed in 1363.
The structure is 54.86 m high, with a circumference of 107.24 m, and is the largest baptistery in Italy
The pulpit was sculpted between 1255-1260 by Nicola Pisano, father of Giovanni of the Duomo pulpit
Exterior details
Interior view - using the stripe pattern again
Being spied on from above
directly below the altar
Baptismal font
Detail of side of the baptismal font
Detail on the capitals
Detailed carving on one of the sides of the font - each side was slightly different from the other
The Camposanto ("Holy Field") or Monumental Cemetery in Pisa was constructed in 1278 around sacred dirt brought back from Golgotha during the Crusades. Later decorated with extensive frescoes, it was the burial place of the Pisan upper class for centuries. In 1278, Giovanni di Simone (architect of the Leaning Tower) designed a marble cloister to enclose the holy ground, which became the primary cemetery for Pisa's upper class until 1779.
Tragically, the extensive frescoes of the Camposanto were almost completely destroyed by a bombing raid during World War II. On July 27, 1944, American warplanes launched a major air attack against Pisa, which was still held by the Nazis. The wooden roof caught fire, its lead panels melted and the hot metal ran all over the frescoes. Many were completely destroyed and the few that remained were badly damaged. Some of the frescoes and original sketches found were moved to a museum in Pisa.
The Camposanto has since been fully restored. Some original frescoes can still be seen in the Camposanto.
individuals are still being buried there today, although they appear to be only religious individuals now. The most recent site we saw was dated 2009.
This is only one quarter of the structure, excluding the ends.
Under each rectangular stone there is someone buried - doing a little mathematical extrapolation (don't you love that word?), (6 across X 34 rows X 4 quadrants plus another 50 plus at each end) I figured out that there are at least 900 individuals at rest here
- if you can call hundreds of people traipsing over you every day, resting!
Old sarcophagi line the walls all around the structure.
here he seems to have snared and speared a giraffe!
Now for the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Torre Pendente di Pisa in Italian) the reason for most people going to Pisa. Begun in 1173, the bell tower (campanile) of Pisa Cathederal has a significant lean of 5.5 degrees. The settling of its foundations and resulting lean became apparent before it was even finished - after only three stories were completed. The engineer at the time tried to compensate by making the new stories a little taller on one side. However, the extra materials caused the tower to sink even more.
Work was suspended several times as engineers worked to find a solution, but the tower was still leaning when it was completed in 1350. In the late 20th century the structure was still subsiding at the rate of 0.05 inches (1.2 mm) per year and in serious danger of collapse. In 1990, the Leaning Tower was closed and the bells were silenced as engineers undertook a major straightening project. The main technique was to siphon more than 70 tons of earth from underneath the foundations while supporting the tower with steel cables and lead weights. The work was completed in May 2001 and has decreased the lean by 17 inches (44 cm) to 13.5 feet (4.1 metres).
We did not go inside
That's it, that's all we took.
