Angelo Caduto (Fallen Angel) is a large bronze by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj that lies on the lawn of Pisa's Piazza dei Miracoli, at the foot of the Leaning Tower. The four great buildings around it were all begun between the 11th and 13th centuries; the angel is a 21st-century newcomer, a broken, classical-looking figure that seems to have dropped among the medieval monuments. It recalls the last exhibition Mitoraj created in his lifetime, held in this square in 2014.
Angelo Caduto at a glance
- Where: on the lawn of Piazza dei Miracoli (officially Piazza del Duomo), at the foot of the Leaning Tower.
- Created: 2012, in bronze.
- By: Igor Mitoraj (1944–2014), a Polish sculptor who worked in Paris and in Pietrasanta, Tuscany.
- What it is today: a contemporary sculpture in a square that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, free to see from the paths.
- Time needed: 5–10 minutes, as part of a visit to the square.
Mitoraj and the Field of Miracles
Mitoraj was born in Germany in 1944 to a Polish mother and a French father, grew up in Kraków and studied painting there. He moved to Paris in 1968 and in 1983 opened a studio in Pietrasanta, the Tuscan town of marble workshops and bronze foundries, while keeping his Paris studio. His sculptures borrow from classical myth, with figures such as Eros, Icarus and the centaurs, but he made them look like ruins: faces split or bandaged, limbs missing, torsos broken off, as if time had already damaged them. His work stands at La Défense in Paris and in Rome's Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, for which he made bronze doors and a statue of John the Baptist.
From 17 May 2014 to 12 April 2015, Pisa's cathedral authority hosted his exhibition 'Angeli' (Angels), setting his figures among the monuments of the Piazza del Duomo and in its museums. Mitoraj died in Paris on 6 October 2014, while the show was still running, so it became the last exhibition he created in his lifetime. The fallen angel at the foot of the tower continues the link between the artist and the square that began with that show, and in 2020 three of his bronze panels went on display in the square's Museo delle Sinopie.
What to look for
- The fall: the figure is not a proud angel on a column but one that has come down to earth, lying in the grass so that you look down at it rather than up.
- The broken body: like most of Mitoraj's figures, it is deliberately fragmentary, like an ancient statue dug up by archaeologists rather than a new work.
- The face in the wing: look closely at the wings for a face set into one of them, a Medusa-like mask of the kind Mitoraj often hid in his sculptures.
- The view with the tower: from the path on the cathedral side you can frame the fallen angel against the Leaning Tower, a modern figure that has fallen in front of a medieval tower that has never quite stood straight.
Why the Field of Miracles?
The square's popular name comes from a novel, not from any miracle. In 1910 the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio, in Forse che sì forse che no, called it the 'prato dei Miracoli', the meadow of miracles, meaning the four white marble buildings rising from the grass. The name stuck, and today Piazza dei Miracoli and Campo dei Miracoli are far more common than the official Piazza del Duomo. Mitoraj's angel, lying on that same meadow, takes the name almost literally.
Tips for your visit
- Come early in the morning or late in the afternoon: the angel and the tower are much easier to photograph without the midday crowds.
- Keep to the paths and off the lawns where signs ask you to; the angel is easy to see from the edge of the grass.
- Seeing the angel is free, but climbing the Leaning Tower works with timed tickets, so book ahead in high season if you want to go up too.
Nearby
- Leaning Tower: the cathedral's bell tower, begun in 1173, which started to lean while it was still being built.
- Pisa Cathedral: begun in 1064, the building that gave the whole square its style of white marble, arcades and striped walls.
- Baptistery: begun in 1153 to designs by Diotisalvi, the largest baptistery in Italy, with a pulpit carved by Nicola Pisano between 1255 and 1260 and famous acoustics.
- Camposanto: the monumental cemetery along the north side of the square, begun in 1278, whose frescoes were badly damaged when an Allied bombing raid set its roof on fire on 27 July 1944.
See Pisa with World City Trail
Our Pisa scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around 2 hours, with about 34 minutes of walking. It includes Keith Haring's Tuttomondo mural and the small Gothic church of Santa Maria della Spina on the Arno.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Pisa.
Play the Pisa scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Pisa →
Play the outdoor escape game in Pisa →
Facts checked in October 2026.