Pisa

Categories: Towns in Tuscany | Coastal cities | Repubbliche Marinare of Italy

Image:Stemma-pisa.jpg
Pisa's coat of arms
This article is about Pisa in Italy. For other places of the same name, see Pisa (disambiguation).

Pisa (population 85,379) is a city in Tuscany, northern Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa and is located at 43°43′ N 10°24′ E, at 4 meters over the sea level.

Current mayor (since May 25, 2003), is Paolo Fontanelli.

Contents

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History

Image:PisaViewFromTower20020323.JPG
View of the city of Pisa from the Leaning Tower
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Ancient times

Nobody really knows when Pisa was founded. The city lay where two rivers, Arno and Auser (now disappeared) ended in the Tyrrhenian Sea forming a laguna area. As founders of the city have been proposed variously the Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Ligurians. Archeological remains confirm the existence of a sea city already in the 5th century BC, which traded with Greeks and Gauls. Also ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Servius wrote that the Teuti, or the king of the Pisei, Pelopes, founded the town thirteen centuries before the birth of Christ. Strabo referred Pisa'origins to the mythical Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy, while the Aeneid states the Pisa in that period was already a great and developed centre.

The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the rostrum: it took advantage of being the one port of all the coast going from Genoa, then a small village, to Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions agains Ligurians, Gauls and Carthaginians and in 180 BC (as Portus Pisanus) it became a Roman colony under Roman law. However, the presence of an Etruscan necropolis was discovered during excavations in the Arena Garibaldi in 1991. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name in Colonia Iulia Obsequens. Since 313 it was seat of a bishopric.

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High Middles Ages

During the later years of the Roman Empire Pisa probably did not decay as much as the other cities of Italy, probably thanks to the complexity of its river system and the consequent easiness of defence. In the 7th century Pisa helped the pope Gregorius the Great by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against the Byzantines of Ravenna: Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall in Lombard hand, presumably not after violent conquest by simply through assimilation to the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevailing. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Thyrrenian Sea and main centre of the trades between Tuscany and Corsica, Sardinia and the the southern coasts of France and Spain.

After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards of Desiderius in 774, Pisa lived a crisis but recovered soon. Politically it become part of the duchy-county of Lucca. In 930 Pisa become a county centre (status it mantained until the appearance of Otto I) within the mark of Tuscia: Lucca was its capital but probably Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of 10th century Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, called Pisa tusciae provinciae caput ("head of the province of Tuscia"), and one century later the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa".. In 1003 Pisa was protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca of course. From the naval point of view, since the 9th century the emergence of the Saracen pirates urged the city to enhance its fleet: in the future years these fleets guaranteed it the opportunity to expand. In 828 the Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa. In 871 they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970 they gave also a strong support to the Otto I's expedition who defeated a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts.

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11th century

The power of Pisa as a mighty maritime nation began to grow on and reached its apex in the 11th century when it acquired a traditional fame as one of the four main historical Marine Republics of Italy (Repubbliche Marinare) of Italy.

At that time the city was a very important commercial center and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers by the sack in 1005 of Reggio di Calabria in the south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with the Saracens, who had their bases in Sardinia and Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean Sea. In 1017 Sardinia was captured, in alliance with Genoa, by the defeat of the Saracen king Mugahid. This victory gave Pisa the supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these mighty Marine Republics. Between 1030 and 1035 Pisa goes on successfully defeating several rival towns in Sicily and conquering Carthage in North Africa. In 1051-1052 the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063 admiral Giovanni Orlando, coming at the aid of the Norman Roger I, took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Campo dei Miracoli.

In 1060 Pisa had to engage in their first battle with Genoa. The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognized in 1077 the new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name consuls of its own, adviced by a Council of Elders. This simply stated what was already happening because in these years the marquis had already been excluded from the power. In 1092 Pope Urban II awarded to Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, also rising it at the rank of archbishopric.

Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of El Mehedia in 1088. Four years later Pisane and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push the Cid out of Valencia. A Pisane fleet of 120 ships also took part in the first crusade and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands: the Pisane crusaders were led by their archbihsop Daibert, the future patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. In particular the Pisane founded colonies in in Antiochia, Acre, Jaffa, Tripolis, Tyre, Joppe, Laodicea and Accone. They also had other possessments in Jerusalem and Caesarea, plus other smaller colonies (with a lesser grade of autonomy) in Cairo, Alexandria and of course Constantinople, where the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities the Pisane citizens were granted privileges and immunty from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century the Pisane quarter in the Eastern part of Constantinople had a population of some 1,000. For some years of that century Pisa was the most prominent merchant and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself.

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12th century

In 1113 Pisa and the Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contigents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors: the queen and the king of Mallorca are brought in chain to Tuscany. Even though the Almovarids soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped the Pisane in their magnificent program of buildings, especially the cathedral, and Pisa gained a role of preminence in the Western Mediterranean.

In the following years the powerful Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi, drove away the Saracens after ferocious combats. Though short-lived, the Spanish success of Pisa made the rivalry with Genoa a last-blood one. Pisa's trades with the Languedoc and Provence (Noli, Savona, Fréjus and Montpellier) were an obstacle to the Genoese interests in cities like Hyerés, Fos, Antibes and Marseille.

The war began in 1119 when the Genoese attacked several galleys in their way to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fighted themselves in sea and land but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults.

In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa, asserting the claims of pope Innocent II against those of pope Anacletus II, who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support but was not recognized outside Rome. Innocent set the conflict Genoa giving Pisa establishing their respective sphere of influence:. Pisa could then take part in the conflict of Innocent against Roger II of Sicily. The victory over its other main rival (though already declining under the foreign rule) Amalfi, was conquered on August 6 1136: the Pisane destroyed the ships in the port, stormed the castles in the neighbourhood and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa. This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later its soldiers sacked Salerno.

In the following years Pisa was one of the stauncest members of the Ghibelline party: this position was prized by Frederick I, through two important diplomas of 1162 and 1165, with the following concessions: apart from the jurisdiction over the Pisane countryside and the freedom of trade in all the Empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, an half of Palermo, Messina, Salerno and Naples, the whole Gaeta, Mazzarri and Trapani, and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily. Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI, Otto IV and Frederick II. They marked the apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of cities like Lucca, Massa, Volterra and Florence, who saw thwarted their aim to expand towards the sea. The clash with Lucca concerned also the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly for the control of the Via Francigena, the main street connecting Rome to France. Last but not least, such a sudden and large strengthening of the power of Pisa could only mean another war with Genoa.

Genoa had acquired a largely dominant position in the markets of the Southern France, and the war began presumably in 1165 on the Rhone, where a convoy directed to some Pisane bases on the river was attacked in vain by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse. Pisa's was instead allied with the Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant deeds. Another point of attrition was Sicily, where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI. In 1192 Pisa managed to conquer to whole Messina. This episode was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III, though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III, allied with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by [Florence]]. Soon he stipulated a pact with Genoa too, further weaking the Pisa presence in Southern Italy.

To counter the Genoese predominance in the southern Thyrrenian Sea, Pisa strenghtened his relationship with their Spanish and French traditional bases (Marseille, Narbonne, Barcelona, etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea. In 1180 the two cities had stipulated a non-aggression treaty in the Thyrrenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed the situation, and soon there were attacks against Venetian convoys. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona, Pola, Zara, Split and Brindisi: in 1195 a Pisane fleet reached Pola to help in mantain its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima managed soon to reconquer the rebel sea city.

One year later the two cities signed a peace treaty which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa. But in 1199 the Pisane broke it, blockading the port of Brindisi in Puglia, but in a subsequent naval battle they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adratic, though it mantained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase the trading benefits in Constantinople.

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13th century

In 1209 and 1217 there were in Lerici two councils to set finally the rivalry with Genoa. A twenty-years peace treaty was signed. But when in 1220 the emperor [Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] confirmed its supremacy over the Thyrrenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, the Genoese and Tuscanian resentment against Pisa grow again. In the following years Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and was defeated by the Florentine at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa meant also the Pope had to consider it an enemy in a time of strong quarrels against the Empire, and indeed he tried to deprive it of its dominions in Northern [Sardinia]].

In 1238 Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice agaisnt the Empire, and consequently against Pisa too. One year later he excommunicated Frederick II and call for a anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On May 3, 1241, a combined fleet of Pisane and Sicilian ships led by the Emperor's son Enzo attacked a Genoese convoys carrying prelates from Northern Italy and Frances, next to the Isola del Giglio, in front of Tuscany: the Genoese lost 25 ships, while some thousands of sailors, two cardinals and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this outstanding victory the council failed, but Pisa was excommunicated. This extreme mesaure were to be removed only in 1257. The Tuscan city tried anyway to take advantage of the favourable situation conquering the Corsican city of Aleria and even sieging Genoa itself in 1243.

The Ligurian republic, however, recovered fastly and in 1256 won back Lerici, which the Pisane had conquered some years earlier.

The great expansion in the Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The consuls were dropped and in 1230 the new city rulers named a Capitano del Popolo ("People's Chieftain") as civil and military leader. In spite of these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti. In 1237 the archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strain did not cease. In 1254 the people rebelled and imposed the presence of twelve Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representants in the Commune. They also supplemented the Legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies, which were to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate.

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Decline

The decline began in August 6, 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini, was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria, in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria. This defeat ended the marine power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered. Sardinia was lost: the region around it did not permit the city to recover of the loss of thousands sailors. Pisa never had the manpower for its ship that Liguria guaranteed to Genoa. Though in a reduced way, anyway, goods continued to be traded, but the end came when the Arno started to change course, making impossible to the galleys to reach the city's port up the river. It seems also the that nearby area become malaric.

Always Ghibelline, it tried to rebuild its power in the course of the 14th century and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315). Eventually, however, divided by internal struggles and weakened by the loss of its mercantile strength, Pisa was conquered by Florence in 1406. In 1409 Pisa was seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism. In 1494 it proudly rebelled and open its gates to the French King Charles VIII of France. But the new freedom lasted only fifteen years of battles and sieges, and in 1509 Pisa became again a Florentine possessment and its role of port of Tuscany went to Livorno.

Furthermore in the 15th century, the accession to the sea became more and more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494 Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim Naples, Pisa grabbed the opportunity to reclaim its independence as the Second Pisan Republic. Pisa was reconquered by Florence in 1509 and gained with time a mainly, though secondary, cultural role spurred by the presence of a renowned University created in 1343. Its decline is clearly shown by its population, which has remained almost unchanged since Middle Ages times.

Pisa was the birthplace of the founder of modern physics, Galileo Galilei. It is still and archbishopric seat and has gained a role as a light industrial centre and as a railway hub. It has suffered several destruction during World War II.

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Landmarks

Image:Leaning-tower-of-pisa.jpg
Leaning Tower of Pisa

By far the best known sight in Pisa is the famous leaning tower which is but one of many architecturally and artistically important structures in the city's Campo dei Miracoli or Field of Miracles to the north of the old town center. The Campo dei Miracoli is also the site of the beautiful Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Camposanto (the monumental cemetery).

Other interesting sights include Knights' Square (Piazza dei Cavalieri), where the Palazzo della Carovana, with its awesome facade designed by Giorgio Vasari may be seen, Borgo Stretto where it is possible to stroll under medieval arcades and Lungarno, the avenues along the river Arno. Remarkably, there are at least two other leaning towers in the city, one at the southern end of central Via Santa Maria, the other halfway through the Piagge riverside promenade.

Pisa can boast of several museums :

Pisa hosts the University of Pisa, especially renowed in the fields of Physics, Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and the Scuola Normale Superiore, the Italian academic elite institution, mostly for research and the education of graduate students.

Construction of a new leaning tower of glass and steel 57 meters tall, containing offices and apartments was scheduled to start in summer 2004 and take 4 years. It was designed by Dante Oscar Benini and raised criticism.

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Notable people born in Pisa

Image:Campo dei Miracoli overview2.jpg
Overview of the Campo dei Miracoli from above. The leaning tower is on the left, the Duomo is in the center and the Baptistery is on the right.
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Notable residents in Pisa

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Sources

  • Yves Renouard, "Les Villes d'Italie de la fin du Xe siecle au bébut du XIVe siecle" (1969)
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External links

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