Piazza dei Cavalieri

The Knights’ Square (Italian: Piazza dei Cavalieri) is one of the most important landmarks in Pisa, Italy, and the second main square of the city. This square was the political centre in medieval Pisa.

Pallazo della Carovana, or Palazzo dei Cavalieri, with its proportions and beauty, dominates the whole square with a noble architectonic structures of the 16th and 17th centuries. Originaly it was called Elders' Palace, but when Pisa fell under the Medici, Cosimo I commissioned Vasari to transforme it. By order of Cosimo I, after the middle of XVI century, the palace became the seat of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen founded by him to defend and protect the Tyrrhenian coast from the Muslim raids. It has a beautiful façade above the door, animated by elegant graffito decorations and ogival niches containing the arms of the Knights of St. Stephen, and busts of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Now it's a centre of education - Scuola Normale Superiore - the institute of higher education founded by Napoleon in 1810. The Scuola Normale is unique in Italy in that only the best handpicked students are admitted to its courses. As far as I know, there are only two of the kind, this being the second after the one in France.

Just in front of the double staircase of the magnificent Palazzo dei Cavalieri stands the statue of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was commissioned by Grand Duke Ferdinando I in 1596 to the Franco-Flemish sculptor Pietro Francavilla, who executed it in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition. The statue celebrates Ferdinando's father as the first Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen and is a civic symbol of the hegemony of Florence. The Grand Duke Cosimo is represented in the robes of Grand Master, standing on an high pedestal, in the act of subduing a dolphin, symbol of his domination over the seas. The fountain, in front of the pedestal, was also erected by Francavilla. It has a basin in the form of a shell decorated with two grotesque monsters. Unfortunately, the statue has been damaged in the course of time.

Another remarkable building in Piazza dei Cavalieri is the Palazzo dell'Orologio or Gherardesca, that was built in 1607 for the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen. The building was designed by great Vasari, who joined two separate medieval towers together by an arch, not to break the street. The arch content clock and beautiful small white stone belfry on its top. This building now used as library, was once used as jail.
Here is written a black page of the history of Pisa. In the 13th century, the mayor of Pisa, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca was accused of disloyalty and sent to jail together with his sons and grandsons. He was condemned to death by starvation (the story tells that he has eaten one of his children while in that prison). Like this all the male members of the Ugolino family where exterminated.

Status: work still in progress! ;)