When you think about what to see in Pisa, it’s impossible not to picture its famous leaning tower. But that incredible bell tower is only one of the many monuments this beautiful Tuscan city has to offer.
In the very same place as the Tower you’ll find the other main monuments of Pisa: the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Camposanto. They are all gathered in the world-famous Piazza dei Miracoli, one of the most beautiful and famous squares in Italy.
But Pisa holds other artistic wonders that make it one of the loveliest cities in the country.
You’ll notice it easily as you wander through the historic centre or along the banks of the Arno. The monuments you meet along the way take you back in time, to an age when this maritime republic controlled much of the Mediterranean and was among the most powerful cities in the world.
And that’s not all!
Yes, because beyond being a place of art, Pisa is also a young and lively city, thanks to one of the best universities in Italy.
In this post I’ll tell you my experience and explain what to see in Pisa beyond the Tower, on a route that reveals the lesser-known corners of this beautiful city.
Want to know more? Let’s go!
1 – What to see in Pisa: Santa Maria della Spina on the Lungarni
Pisa is famous for the beauty of its Lungarni, the two streets that line the river Arno and cross the city from east to west. Besides being a gathering spot for Pisan evenings, the Lungarni of Pisa are lined with important medieval buildings, often transformed and reworked over the centuries.
For example?
Right on Lungarno Gambacorti stands a little gem, one of the churches you absolutely must see in Pisa: Santa Maria della Spina. This delightful little church was built around 1230 on the banks of the Arno, and was originally named Santa Maria di Pontenovo, after the medieval bridge that once stood beside it (it collapsed in the 15th century and was never rebuilt).
The name “della Spina” (“of the thorn”) came later: in 1333 a thorn believed to be part of Christ’s crown of thorns was brought here, and kept until the 19th century, when it was moved to the nearby church of Santa Chiara, where it still is today.
Why does it matter?
This church is one of the finest examples of Pisan Gothic in Italy. Its roof is a lace of pinnacles, inlays, rose windows and statues carved in the 14th century by the greatest Pisan masters, from Lupo di Francesco to Andrea and Nino Pisano and Giovanni di Balduccio. To Andrea and Nino Pisano we owe its most precious sculpture, the delicate Madonna della Rosa (around 1345-1348); the original is now in the National Museum of San Matteo, but the effect of the whole is still magical.
The building was restored several times because of the sinking ground, until between 1871 and 1875, under the architect Vincenzo Micheli, it was entirely dismantled and rebuilt one metre higher and shifted a few metres, to protect it from the Arno’s floodwaters.
I found it closed, but I can assure you the effect is magnificent: it looks like a precious little treasure chest set beside the river!
Don’t miss it.
2 – San Paolo a Ripa d’Arno, the “second cathedral”
Still along the Arno, but on the other bank, stands San Paolo a Ripa d’Arno, a majestic building that was the city’s most important place of worship at least until the Cathedral of Pisa was built. Pisans still call it “the old Duomo”.
Your eye is caught first by the chapel of Sant’Agata, which looks like a huge fairy hat forgotten in a meadow. It dates to around 1060 and was built to celebrate Pisa’s victory over Palermo in 1063; it has an octagonal plan in plain brick and stayed hidden for centuries inside a cloister, until the bombings of 1943. Behind it hides an incredibly beautiful basilica, whose origins go back to 925.
And here’s some good news, because if you’ve read old guidebooks you’ll find it described as an abandoned ruin: the church went through hard years (serious structural damage from 2010, a legacy of wartime bombing), but after a long restoration it was reopened to the public in 2019, and in 2022 the recovery of the chapel of Sant’Agata was completed too. Today you can step inside again and admire the frescoes by Buffalmacco (the same artist as the Triumph of Death in the Camposanto) and the majestic Roman sarcophagus that holds the remains of Burgundio, a 12th-century Pisan jurist.
It’s well worth adding to your list of things to see in Pisa.
3 – The (other) leaning bell towers of Pisa
Perhaps you didn’t know, but beyond the famous Tower, Pisa has two more leaning bell towers.
That’s right: the bell towers of the church of San Nicola and the church of San Michele degli Scalzi both lean noticeably. They belong to two medieval churches built in the 13th century and suffer from structural problems caused by the same soft, clayey ground that made the Tower famous.
Surprising, isn’t it? Let’s just say that in Pisa, balance is more of an opinion than a certainty.
4 – Piazza dei Cavalieri
If you want to know what to see in Pisa, I can’t forget Piazza dei Cavalieri, with its Palazzo della Carovana, today home of the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore. The palace was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1562 for the Order of the Knights of Santo Stefano (founded the year before by Cosimo I de’ Medici to carry on the maritime legacy of the old republic); the knights moved in as early as 1564. Its façade, covered in sgraffito decoration and busts, is one of the most striking in Tuscany.
On the same square stands the church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, also designed by Vasari, which inside preserves the banners captured from the Turks in naval battles.
Piazza dei Cavalieri was for centuries the heart of the city’s civic power; today it is above all a place of culture and study. Right next to it stands the Palazzo dell’Orologio, which incorporates the “Tower of Hunger” (the Torre della Muda), where in 1289 Count Ugolino della Gherardesca starved to death with his sons and grandsons. If you’ve read the Divine Comedy you’ll surely remember his tragic story, one of the most famous in Dante’s Inferno.
5 – The Botanical Garden, the oldest in the world
If you love botany, I suggest visiting the Botanical Garden and Museum of Pisa. And it’s no ordinary garden: founded in 1543 by the physician and botanist Luca Ghini with funding from Cosimo I de’ Medici, it is the oldest university botanical garden in the world (older even than those of Padua and Florence). In 1591 it was moved to its current site, between Piazza dei Miracoli and Piazza dei Cavalieri.
Today it is part of the University of Pisa and, across three hectares, gathers plants from all over the world, centuries-old trees (a magnolia and a ginkgo from the late 18th century, a camphor tree from 1872) and a museum with 17th-century portraits of botanists and an old herbarium. It won’t disappoint you, whatever the season.
A short history of Pisa
You’ve probably guessed it already, but the history of Pisa goes back thousands of years. This corner of Tuscany has been inhabited since antiquity: an Etruscan settlement, then a Roman city and an important trading hub. Pisa was one of the most important cities of the Middle Ages: from the 11th century it was a maritime republic and built its fortune on sea trade.
Thanks to its position and its control of Mediterranean trade, Pisa clashed repeatedly with the Saracen fleets and came to control vast territories, with possessions in Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily. At the time it had a port at the mouth of the Arno and was much closer to the sea than it is now.
The decline of Pisa came in the 13th century: the naval defeat at the Battle of Meloria (1284) against its rival Genoa cost it territories and prestige, paving the way for Florence’s later rule.
And if this walk among the lesser-known corners has caught your interest, the next step is obvious: the Piazza dei Miracoli, with its leaning tower. And if you’re staying in Tuscany, not far away you’ll find the mysteries of Lucca Cathedral and the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in Pistoia, further proof of the genius of the Pisano family who left Santa Maria della Spina here in Pisa.
Which hidden corner of Pisa did you love most?
