Pisa is much more than one leaning tower. In the Middle Ages it was one of Italy's great maritime republics, rich enough to build the white marble cathedral square that still stops visitors in their tracks, and it has been a university city since 1343. Here are the facts and stories that make the city special.
10 curiosidades sobre Pisa
- Uma torre inclinada desde o início: a construção do campanário começou em 1173, e começou a inclinar-se quando se chegou ao terceiro piso, porque o terreno mole cedia. A obra parou durante quase um século, e a sala dos sinos só ficou pronta no século XIV.
- Endireitada, um pouco: a torre esteve fechada de 1990 a 2001 enquanto engenheiros retiravam com cuidado terra por baixo do lado mais alto. A inclinação foi reduzida em cerca de 40 centímetros, e a torre continua inclinada cerca de quatro graus.
- Não é a única: os campanários de San Nicola e de San Michele degli Scalzi, em Pisa, também estão inclinados, pela mesma razão: terreno mole e encharcado.
- Italy's largest baptistery: the round Baptistery on the Piazza dei Miracoli is the biggest in Italy, and its acoustics are so good that staff often sing a few notes to let visitors hear the echo.
- Terra do Gólgota: diz a lenda que o Camposanto, o cemitério monumental, foi construído à volta de terra trazida do Gólgota por navios pisanos durante as Cruzadas. Os frescos foram muito danificados por um incêndio causado por bombardeamentos aliados em julho de 1944 e foram restaurados ao longo de décadas.
- A World Heritage square: the Piazza del Duomo, better known as the Piazza dei Miracoli, the Square of Miracles, was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1987.
- Galileo's home town: Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in 1564 and later taught at its university. The story that he dropped balls from the Leaning Tower comes from his pupil Vincenzo Viviani, and many historians doubt it ever happened.
- A rival to Genoa and Venice: Pisa was one of Italy's maritime republics, with trading posts around the Mediterranean, until its fleet was crushed by Genoa at the Battle of Meloria in 1284.
- Keith Haring's Tuttomondo: in June 1989 the American artist painted a mural of 180 square metres, with 30 figures celebrating peace and harmony, on the wall of the church of Sant'Antonio Abate. It took him about a week and was one of his last public works.
- A church built for a thorn: the small Gothic church of Santa Maria della Spina on the Arno is named after a thorn said to come from Christ's crown. In 1871 it was taken apart and rebuilt higher up, because river water was seeping in.
Galileu e a lâmpada que balança
A favourite Pisa story says that young Galileo, at Mass in the cathedral, watched a lamp swinging on its long chain and timed it against his own pulse. He noticed that every swing took the same time, whether it was wide or narrow, an idea that later led to the pendulum clock. Guides still point to the bronze lamp in the nave as Galileo's lamp, but it was cast a few years after the date usually given for his observation, so if the story is true he was watching an earlier one. What is certain is that Galileo studied and taught in Pisa, and that his work on motion and falling bodies began here.
A Piazza dei Cavalieri, explicada
This square was the political heart of medieval Pisa. In the 16th century Cosimo I de' Medici made it the seat of the Knights of St Stephen, an order founded in 1561 to fight pirates in the Mediterranean, and Giorgio Vasari redesigned its palaces. The Palazzo della Carovana, with its decorated façade, now houses the Scuola Normale Superiore, a university college founded by Napoleonic decree in 1810. The square also holds a darker memory: Count Ugolino della Gherardesca was locked in a tower here in 1288 with his sons and grandsons and left to starve, a story Dante told in the Inferno.
O que comer em Pisa
- Cecina: uma panqueca fina e estaladiça de farinha de grão-de-bico, cozida em forno a lenha. Come-a quente, com muita pimenta preta.
- Torta coi bischeri: uma tarte de chocolate e arroz do campo à volta de Pisa, com pontas de massa a toda a volta.
- Trufas brancas de San Miniato: a vila de colina na província de Pisa é famosa pelas suas trufas brancas, celebradas numa feira todos os novembros.
- Pecorino Toscano: the region's sheep's cheese, often served with honey or fresh pears.
- Vin Santo e cantucci: um vinho doce cor de âmbar para molhar os biscoitos duros de amêndoa no fim da refeição.
Antes de ires
- Os bilhetes para subir à torre inclinada são vendidos por horários e esgotam muitas vezes na época alta, por isso reserva com antecedência. Crianças com menos de oito anos não podem subir.
- A maioria dos visitantes nunca sai da Piazza dei Miracoli. Continua pelo Borgo Stretto, sob as arcadas medievais, até ao Arno para veres o resto da cidade.
- As margens do rio ficam mais bonitas ao pôr do sol. Na noite de 16 de junho, para a Luminara, os edifícios ao longo do Arno são iluminados com dezenas de milhares de velas.
- Lucca e Florença são passeios fáceis de um dia de comboio.
Descobre Pisa com a World City Trail
Our Pisa scavenger hunt turns these sights into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around two hours, with about 34 minutes of walking, past sights such as Keith Haring's Tuttomondo mural and Santa Maria della Spina on the Arno.
Em cada paragem resolves um enigma e ouves uma pequena história, ao teu ritmo. Podes começar quando quiseres.
Jogar a caça ao tesouro de Pisa →
Factos verificados em outubro de 2026.