Pisa

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This article is about Pisa in Italy. For other places of the same name, see Pisa (disambiguation).

Pisa (population 90,000) is a city in Tuscany, northern Italy at the mouth of the river Arno on the Mediterranean. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa and is located at 43°43′ N 10°24′ E.

Contents

History

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Ancient times

Nobody really knows when Pisa was founded. The city lied 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. 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.

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.

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. 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.

12th and 13th 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: 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 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. In the following years Pisa was the most loyal and staunce member of the Ghibelline party: this position was prized byFrederick 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 Frederik 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.

Frederick II and Henry VII. Those emperors acknowledged Pisan independence and were so grateful for its loyalty that the town was chosen to house the spoils of Henry King of Germans, the son of Frederick II. The spoils remain in Pisa's Cathedral. In this confrontation with the supporters of the pope, Pisa came in conflict with Genoa at sea and with Florence and Lucca on land. Several prelates were captured by the combined fleet of Pisa and the emperor Frederick II, while they were on their way with a Genoese squadron to attend for the Lateran Council, convoked by pope Gregory IX. Pisa was subsequently excommunicated.

The decline began in August 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, in the naval Battle of Meloria. The defeat ended the marine power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered. It tried to rebuild its power in the course of the 14th century but was eventually, divided by internal struggles, Pisa was conquered by Florence in 1406.

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, Pïsa grabbed the opportunity to reclaim its independence as the Second Pisan Republic. Pisa was reconquered by Florence in 1509.

Landmarks

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

Notable people born in Pisa

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Notable residents in Pisa

External links

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