Southern Corners 7 - Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa

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The Piazza dei Miracoli or Square of the Miracles is at the heart of Pisa and home to many of its major buildings and attractions.

It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and has a history that dates right back to the city's Etruscan and Roman periods. The piazza has always played a central part in the religious life cycle of Pisan citizens.

The monuments which transform a common name of square into the "Piazza dei Miracoli" are: the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Bell or Leaning Tower and the Monumental Churchyard.

A combination of works of architecture and sculpture which rise stately and austere, but at the same time refined and full of charm, placed around a wide tender green lawn. It is in this natural simplicity that the white marbles, so highly worked and rendered precious by human genius, have found a perfect setting. It is exactly in this pleasant simplicity of the "LAWN" that the greatness of the works, seems almost a creation of nature itself, wonderfully blended, so much so that the tourist, even if passing hastily by, can't help but feel a strong sense of admiration and emotion. This wonderful architectural composition, with so much harmony of styles and colours, contrasts with the beauty of the ancient walls facing west and east, as well as the buildings of the 13th century facing south, today seat of the "Spedali Riuniti di S. Chiara".

The imposing magnificence of the marbles, the green of the lawn, the ancient walls with their embattlements, the sombre and solemn row of cypresses, form a whole really great, even touching play of lights at every hour of the day. ©www.italyguides.it 

Die Piazza dei Miracoli (italienisch Platz der Wunder), wie die Piazza del Duomo im Volksmund auch genannt wird, ist der Domplatz der toskanischen Stadt Pisa. Der Name stammt vom italienischen Dichter und Schriftsteller Gabriele D’Annunzio.[1] Er beschrieb in seinem Buch Forse che sì forse che no den Platz als Wiese der Wunder. Die Piazza dei Miracoli ist eine Grünfläche nahe der Stadtbefestigung im nordwestlichen Teil der Altstadt. Die dezentrale Lage am Rande des Historischen Stadtkerns ist ungewöhnlich. Auf dem Platz steht das berühmte Ensemble, bestehend aus dem Baptisterium als größte Taufkirche der Welt, dem Friedhof Camposanto Monumentale und dem kreuzförmigen Dom Santa Maria Assunta mit seinem Campanile, dem Schiefen Turm. Sie gehören zu den Meisterwerken der mittelalterlichen Architektur und hatten einen großen Einfluss auf die monumentalen Kunst in Italien vom 11. bis zum 14. Jahrhundert.[2] Seit 1987 gehört der Platz zum UNESCO-Welterbe. ©wikipedia

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