The Piazza dei Cavalieri that we see today is the harmonious and elegant result of the political, artistic and cultural strategies adopted by the Medici family when Tuscany was unified under Florentine power.
The creation of the Sacred Order of the Knights of St. Stephen
(Ordine dei Cavalieri di Santo Stefano)
On15 March, 1562, Cosimo I de' Medici received the cloak of the Sacred Order of the Knights of Saint Stephen from the hands of the Archbishop of Pisa and in the name of Pope Pius IV. This new order of knights, destined to combat the raids by Turks and “infidels” on the Mediterranean Sea, answered to a carefully thought-out plan to strengthen Medici power on as many fronts as possible. In fact, the maritime policies of the Medici family guaranteed both an efficient navy and the possibility to mount a defense of the Catholic faith, in accordance with the cultural and ideological climate in Europe at that period. This latter possibility ensured Cosimo more prestige than other sovereigns in the eyes of a Papacy which was occupied fighting against Moslems and Protestants. At the same time, with this order of knights the Prince created a noble institution depending directly on him and closely linked to the Medici dynasty, an institution uniting various and traditionally rival Tuscan oligarchies, thereby canceling out their subversive powers.
The choice of a strategic place
The reasons for the choice of Pisa as the seat for the new Order of Knights were mainly practical and logistical. It was the only Tuscan city with a seafaring tradition and, along with Livorno, the potential to become a driving force in the naval and commercial policies of the duchy. The choice of the square at one time named Piazza degli Anziani (the Square of the Elders) as the seat of the Knights of St. Stephen was instead full of political, symbolic and cultural implications. The Medici family, with the choice of this square, intended to appropriate for themselves a space which up to that time had been a sign of glory of a completely different kind. As early as the Roman period this space had been the center of the city, perhaps even the Roman forum; it was the political and administrative fulcrum of the medieval center and seat to all the most important magistrates of the Republic of Pisa.
The Piazza delle Sette Vie
The square, once named Piazza delle Sette Vie because seven important city streets converged there, had mainly developed between the end of the 12th and the middle of the 14th century. Before the 16th century alterations, the buildings delimiting the square were of various types—towers, houses, towers containing houses, churches—and built in various periods. The Palazzo degli Anziani, which housed the representatives of the citizens in power, was an irregular building constructed between the end of the 11th and the middle of the 14th century with a combination of towers and houses. It was dominated on the north end both by the 11th century Tower of the Gualandi, or of Hunger, in memory of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca who was imprisoned there, and by the early 14th -century tower-and-house called Palazzotto del Capitano (or di Giustizia or dei Gualandi). These two buildings were absorbed into the right and left sides, respectively, of the building now called Palazzo dell'Orologio. Another 14th -century tower house with loggia housed the Palazzo dei Priori or della Communità of Pisa, while on the south side of the square there were some tower-houses dating from the end of the 12th to the beginning of the 13th century with pilasters enclosed in lancet arches. There were also the church of San Pietro in Cortevecchia, ruins of the church of San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori, and houses and tower-houses pertaining to the municipal buildings of the nearby Piazza del Castelletto (Palazzo del Podestà and del Capitano).
Vasari at the service of the Medici
Cosimo I entrusted the restoration of the square to the architect, painter and historiographer Giorgio Vasari. Vasari, a key participant in many of the artistic and cultural projects of the Medici family, began working on January 13 th , only a few days after the founding of the Order of St. Stephen. Using his experience in the construction of temporary structures for public festivals, he came up with a scenographic solution in which the medieval buildings were renovated into a structure which Vasari himself defined as “confusion and disorder”. Vasari used “fifths” which produced effects of symmetry and regularity, and decorative elements for the façades which contributed to the elegance and general compositional unity. The project was worked on gradually, with priority based on the function of the buildings: the first phase involved the Palazzo della Carovana, the brand-new Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, and the Canonica, while the Palazzotto dei Gualandi—or del Capitano—was simply restored and enlarged, used as an infirmary and given the name of Palazzo del Buon Uomo.
17th-century modifications
With Vasari's death the work slowed down and was concentrated on the Canonica, which was finished at the beginning of the 17 th century. By commissioning the bust of Cosimo I, Francesco I began the celebrative commemoration of the Medici dynasty which produced the series of sculptural portraits for the façade of the Palazzo della Carovan. The most important resumption of the work, however, took place under Ferdinando I beginning in 1589, with the construction of the missing structures of the site of the Knights of St. Stephen.
Between 1604 and 1612, the ancient church of San Pietro in Cortevecchia and other buildings connected to it were incorporated into a new complex with the church of San Rocco and three adjacent houses. The western side of the square was planned as a block of houses in series, unified by a continuous wall which was to be entirely frescoed. The first house beside the church was entrusted to the Collegio Puteano in 1605, the other two, in the second half of the century, were used as the chancellery of the Order.
The Palazzo del Buon Uomo was worked on between 1605 and 1608. It was later called the Palazzo dell'Orologio when the clock which was originally on the church bell tower was placed there in 1696. This clock was placed on the large covered passageway built over the vault which connected the two buildings mentioned above, that is, the Torre della Fame on the right and the Palazzotto del Capitano on the left, now restored and unified with the passageway. Ferdinando I continued his celebrative policies with busts of the Medici family for the Palazzo della Carovana and by commissioning the monument with fountain to Cosimo I.
The work again came to a halt until the Grand Duke Cosimo III had the Church of Santo Stefano enlarged and the nearby houses restored in harmony with Vasari's scenography. Palazzo dei Priori, although it had been transformed at the beginning of the 17 th century by Pietro Francavilla, was the only building of a different style and not belonging to the Knights of St. Stephen remaining on the square. They expropriated it in 1690, and it later became the seat of the Council of Twelve; the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen at that point could claim full ownership and use of the entire site.
From the Knights to the Scuola Normale
By the time the Medici had finished their interventions—more than a century long--in the square, the area was completely “redesigned”. Of the seven roads which originally arrived there, three (one in the area of the Canonica, one in the area of the Palazzo dei Priori, and one between the Palazzo della Carovana and the Palazzo dell'Orologio) no longer existed, but the square now had an aspect of ideal unity. This was achieved through the application of a coherent artistic plan to buildings with varying uses, and through the effects of symmetry and modularity produced on the façades, where decorations contribute to the illusion of regularity.
© 2004 Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa - Piazza dei Cavalieri, 7 - 56126 Pisa
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