Porta Santa Marta, Gondole, Acquedotto

Porta Santa Marta (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)

A picturesque corner of the city, where the medieval walls, near the door and the hatch of Santa Marta (15th century), so called from the name of the nearby monastery, join the aqueduct of a thousand arches. The Medici aqueduct, strongly wanted by Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici in 1592, costed 160,000 scudi and was completed in 1613 under Cosimo II. From the top of the walls, and precisely from the small sentry box sheltering soldiers during their patrol, it is possible to see the last arches, which are 954 in all. The arches extend for a length of about 6 km and from Asciano they carried the pure water of Monte Pisano to the entire city. The population, thanks to this intervention, finally returned to grow after a long period of crisis, also due to the unhealthy conditions of well water.

A little further on is the port of the Gondole, so called for the small basin of water, where today the Macinante (or dei Mulini) canal flows, which from Ripafratta reaches Pisa. The canal was commissioned by Cosimo I to operate, through the power of water, the millstones of the wheat processing mills. From the port of the Gondole, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, illustrious characters, such as Mary and P.B. Shelley, Montesquieu, nobles and priests moved along the canal to reach the thermal station of San Giuliano Terme with elegant gondolas.