Piazza dei Cavalieri

Facciata Chiesa Nazionale di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri (G. Bettini, Comune di Pisa)
Facciata Chiesa Nazionale di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri (G. Bettini, Comune di Pisa)

Piazza dei Cavalieri is the result of a huge operation of re-adaptation on the square, ordered by Cosimo I in 1558 and entrusted to Giorgio Vasari. His aim was to give the buildings (constructed, in his words, “in confusione e disordine” “in confusion and disorder”), a more balanced appearance, often by connecting the existing medieval buildings to one another.
The buildings on the square today are palazzo della Carovana (1562-64), the Knights church of St. Stephen (1565-69), palazzo della Canonica (1566), palazzo del Consiglio dei Dodici (1603), palazzo Puteano (1594-98), the Church of S. Rocco (1575) and palazzo dell’Orologio (1605-8). A statue of Cosimo I (1596) by Pietro Francavilla stands in the centre.
During the middle ages, this area was the political and administrative heart of Pisa, in the early middle ages the headquarters of the Longobard gastaldo or Steward who administered the city, and - until the end of the13th century - the site of so many forges that from the 11th century it was known as the “fabbriche maggiori”.
The ironsmiths were a powerful class of craftsmen. With all the workers they employed, they were more numerous than other categories. Their trade was closely linked to shipbuilding, building and the manufacture of arms and objects of daily use. In the late middle ages there was a smaller square here, called piazza delle Sette Vie, because of the seven streets that led from it. On this square, in 1254, Palazzo del Popolo e degli Anziani (now palazzo della Carovana) was built by linking several already existing towers together.
A number of compulsory purchasesand demolitions were carried out in the 1300s to create a large square called Platea Pisani Populi, where public executions were also held.

RINASCENTE
120m
Via del Castelletto, 28
Recapito 050 580460
ATTICO SULLA TORRE
150m
Della Faggiola, 13
Recapito 328 8918505
CASA ARUNA
150m
Via Santa Apollonia, 7
Recapito 333 4629065
CUORE DI PISA
150m
Piazza San Frediano
Recapito 050 577521
LA SOSTA DEI CAVALIERI
60m
Via San Frediano, 3
Recapito 050 9912410
RISTORANTE OSTERIA DEI CAVALIERI
70m
Via S. Frediano, 16
Recapito 050 581259,050 580858
SILVESTRO SAS DI SILVESTRINI CARLO & C.
110m
Via Uguccione Della Faggiola, 1
Recapito 050 556179
LA TOSCANA
110m
Via San Frediano, 10
Recapito 050 969052
IL VERDI D'ESTATE
17-07-2022
06-09-2022
VIS - La scienza spiegata a tutti
10m
Palazzo della Carovana, Scuola Normale Superiore
17-09-2014
Il concerto di Armida
10m
Piazza dei Cavalieri
25-08-2017