Piazza dei Miracoli#Duomo
The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a church in Pisa, which includes the world famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa.
The cathedral stands on the sprawling, green glowing turf Piazza del Duomo, which also features the three associated buildings Baptistery, Monumental Cemetery and the Campanile are ( The Leaning Tower of Pisa). While in many other towns, this land was built over lack of space, they remained in Pisa. Today they provide excellent visibility of the impressive works from the heyday of Pisa. This place was called by the poet D' Annunzio as Piazza dei Miracoli ( Square of Miracles ), and is still called today so. Despite a different construction period of over 200 years with a coherent picture was created by the constant building materials Carrara marble and the uniform facade design. The cathedral became a model for later cathedrals, such as Florence and Siena and was regarded for centuries as the most monumental construction of Christian history.
On the whole building can be found in many disjointed sign on the exterior walls. The reason for this is that you re-used old materials or materials brought from conquered cities.
Pope Gelasius II inaugurated in 1118 a the still unfinished cathedral. He wears the patronal feast of the Assumption of Mary.
- 2.1 organ
Architectural History
Buscheto di Giovanni Giudice began with the construction of the cathedral in 1063 on the alluvial soil in front of the old city wall. Was financed the building with the same year, conquered by the Saracens in front of Palermo treasures. Due to the soft ground and the cathedral in the East fell slightly in. The cross-shaped base of the dome at that time was new to Italy. The transept crossing the five-aisled basilica with three naves of the transept rises an elliptical dome with an octagonal approach. It was only added later in 1380 in the Gothic style by Lupo di Ghent and Puccio di Gadduccio.
The facade was created in the late 12th century by Rainaldo and has been called Pisan Romanesque throughout Tuscany as a model. In the western façade rise above the seven blind arches on the ground floor with its three gates further four loggias with 52 columns. You share the view of the underlying colored marble wall. On the pediment of the 35.5 m wide and 34.2 m high facade a statue of the Madonna col Bambino stands ( German: Madonna with Child) by Andrea Pisano. At her side are angels who came together with the two evangelists on the first loggia by a pupil of Giovanni Pisano. The middle gate is dedicated to the life of the Virgin Mary. About this gate you will find a reminder of font Rainaldo. Under the left arch of the facade lies the grave of Buscheto di Giovanni Giudice, who began the cathedral building.
Dating problems
As for the dating of this cathedral and the historical background of their individual designs, there is in research has long been very different views. An apparently most common version can come up with precise figures and with the exact name of various builders - as, inter alia, the Propylaea Art History Vol 5, that is a quite serious work. Other researchers think all these stories for an ancient, invented in the Middle Ages legend, among others, the author of the volume on " Romanesque Art " from the renowned series, Ars Antiqua ' the Herder publishing house, so also a quite serious company.
After the first theory of the naval victory was in 1063 initiated the construction of the entire system at Palermo on the then prevailing in the Mediterranean Saracens in the year. In Venice this Saracen pirates also played a role. There, too, the overthrow of this danger had been an opportunity to build the new St. Mark's Basilica, and the one in which the Pisans plant may have been started in the same year 1063. The Pisan have made rich pickings by this naval victory and put the money in the glorification of their city. Pisa was at the time - in the 11th century - the most powerful city in Tuscany.
According to the second view nothing has been proven as that in 1118 the cathedral was under construction. This is the only truly traditional date. And you took advantage of that time purely accidental presence of the Pope Gesalius ' the Second, to perform a proper consecration. But some things have already have been to the cathedral and then the two theories in the development time would not differ so much.
The cathedral belongs together with St Mark's Basilica in Venice at the first monumental buildings of medieval Italy, and, of course it has often been thought about who has since had the crucial building ideas. The city of Pisa has set very early own parochial version in the world, attributing the entire system as a brilliant, completely separate idea the architect. Foreign influences are said to have played no role.
The first builders of the cathedral should therefore have been a certain Buscheto (or Busketos ), about which there is very little known. Vasari reported that he was of Greek origin - that is not a pure Pisan! The official Pisan art guide from 1980, however, claimed that it - Buscheto - the modern research with great probability for a true Pisan holds, which is why he is called in this book not only Buscheto but Buscheto Pisano. It may be assumed that this assertion purely Pisan research.
Anyway: definitely knew this Buscheto when is it ever been, the Byzantine cultural sphere, he certainly has seen a lot in his life. Because its architecture borrows on at Islamic mosques in Persia and in early Christian churches in Armenia and Georgia, it combines elements of Italian Romanesque architecture with designs from the walled city of Kairouan - that is a very wide -ranging field. Inscriptions in the cathedral prove the involvement of pagans, Turks, Africans, Persians and Chaldeans. One is in the research by no means agreed as to who had the idea for the cathedral, where he came from and where he hernahm his stylistic models. Pisa had - like Venice - as a naval power intensive trade relations in the eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, it is no wonder that the eastern architecture here could exert influence.
The construction of the Pisan cathedral took a long time, but the overall effect is uniform. If we stick to the first theory, then saw the further development of this: The cathedral was not finished, as the new builder Rainaldus was around 1100 headstrong enough to change the original plan to extend the nave to increase the clerestory - the original amount is still to be seen on the transept - and to build the lower floor of the facade ( on the middle gate of the west facade is right above the inscription: " This famous and magnificent façade of Rainaldo, tüchtigem craftsmen and foremen, with art, genius and zeal completed. " ), which later became the Innsbruck Master William, called Guglielmus has completed until 1160.
The role of the dating of the importance of the facade
This facade provides for Western architectural history is a crucial innovation, namely the transition from the smooth wall to the sculptured display area. Therefore, the question of their precise dating is important.
The second critical theory accepts only that at an unknown date added in the second half of the 12th century in the west of the nave three bays and the current facade was begun. Names are not mentioned in this theory. Accordingly, the entire facade could also have been done in 1200 only and may be planned from the beginning in its present form. Other estimates even take until the middle of the 13th century - that is a hundred years after the first theory.
Nevertheless, there is much that one can distinguish two different phases in the development of the decorative system. The original conception - ie the first phase - looked like to divide the outer walls on the ground floor by the following elements: first, by so-called blind arches, so -beam arcades, then by horizontal strips of colored marble - which has some similarity to the proto- Renaissance in Florence - and finally inserted ornaments and medallions. This scheme is going around the whole cathedral, on the side walls and at the upper levels. That would be the first stage in the development of Pisan architecture.
The design of this rotating blind niches comes back from the Byzantine area, namely from the Comnenian art of 11-12. Century. The motif of the decorative squares set at an angle appears previously in Puglia at a church from the first half of the 11th century, the first version of Santa Maria di Siponto in Manfredonia.
Later builder held in the lower part of the facade of this first concept. However, in the floors above it surpassed this form wealth nor many times. Here was allowed in four galleries one above the other plastic decoration layer of columns and richly decorated arches before the actual church wall stand out clearly - so no more flat fading up. This Baumotiv plays in the history of architecture an important role and also the question of where it first appears and what the church has taken it from what other - hence the importance of accurate dating. In general, this idea comes from the German architecture when it is viewed in the context of the dwarf gallery, which occurs at the beginning of the 11th century for the first time at the cathedral in Trier.
The Pisan architect attacked here, perhaps a Tuscan model on which could be seen for example in Lucca. The dependence relationships between Pisa and Lucca or the other Tuscan towns - and in turn, their ratios to the eastern Mediterranean, where many new ideas came from - be seen differently, however in the literature. One can not simply rely on since medieval sources, because even at that time was already lying. Pisa example, would have certainly had reason to bring forward its cathedral to the year 1063, because in the same year, the St. Mark's Basilica of Venice has been started. And behind Venice we wanted to be, of course not. In research must therefore such claims, even if they are very old, certainly are checked for veracity. And just do not always succeed without doubt a residue remains.
It comes with a historical comparison of the facade designs and their mutual dependence, for example, not matter when the whole building was begun, but on when the facade was designed. If you want to decide the question of what structure occurred with what idea for the first time, the individual components to be rated differently, since partially been built for centuries in such churches. And it may well have occurred a church with a new idea for the first time, the start of construction - as a whole - but much later than the other. And if a pope has consecrated a building and there is a certificate about it before, it does not mean at all that the construction was completed this year. When in doubt, stood an altar and a roof over it - nothing more. That makes it the history of art as difficult to reconstruct the relationships of dependence exactly.
So sensuous as Pisa in his cathedral facade had been no city in Italy and this new facade motif has often been taken up in Tuscany. Was completed the facade of the Innsbruck Master William ( Guglielmus ). Meanwhile, students Bonnano should build the Campanile later. The principle of a set before the actual wall column layer finds its most striking expression in the neighboring Campanile, standing at the total of 180 columns in six storeys above the other. The columns of the façade of the Cathedral were partly taken from ancient buildings and transported by sea to Pisa.
The basic principle of the Pisan school of architecture is, the coating all wall surfaces with decorative arcades patterns, either - as the first stage - only possible surface or - vividly set before - in the second phase. In contrast to northern Europe, which emphasizes the vertical, so that the components are streamlined and rhythm, is here in Italy a consecutive ranking in the horizontal decisive feature. This description is reminiscent of the later architecture of Brunelleschi, the father of the Renaissance in architecture and the inventor of the central perspective. So scratch that thought was not.
Here we have a certain tradition in the Tuscan architecture of Roman antiquity through the Romanesque to the Renaissance. You can see this as an indication that the Italian Renaissance did not occur abruptly and that it has effectively given in the Middle Ages intermediates such as here in Pisa.
The principle of endless ranking is indicative of the entire Italian architecture not only of the Middle Ages, but since ancient times. And that's also understandable why the dwarf gallery of northern Europe has been taken. This Romanesque ' decoration system emerges incidentally in Pisa not at the cathedral for the first time, but even older buildings in the city and its immediate vicinity.
The cathedral of Pisa was therefore begun at about 1063 and largely completed at the end of the 13th century.
Interior decoration
In the great fire in 1595 much was destroyed in the interior of the cathedral. The gilded coffered ceiling dates from the 17th century, where the event was an elaborate restoration of the cathedral after the fire.
Dominant is the double row of columns at the center of the building, consisting of massive granite columns, with Kapitellabschlüssen. In are alternately black and white Byzantine arches, strongly reminiscent of a mosque.
The pulpit is the work of Giovanni Pisano, emerged in the period 1302-1311. The pulpit is hexagonal and rests on 11 pillars. Based on the mid-section supports are allegories of the seven liberal arts and the three Christian virtues. Two of the outer columns are lions resting on pillars, two other pillars are square, one wearing the Archangel Michael, the other the ancient hero Hercules. The other bear allegories of the Ecclesia, the four cardinal virtues and the four evangelists. The nine -forming achieve relief plates are each subdivided by prophets and saints and summarized by an ornate cornice. The cornice lies on a lectern in the shape of an eagle with outstretched wings.
The mosaic in the Apsiskalotte was started by Francesco di Simone and completed in 1302 by Cimabue. Shown is the enthroned Christ in the company of Mary and John. The apse is completely painted with frescoes by Beccafumi, Sogliano and Sodoma. Above the altar hangs a bronze Crucifix by Giambologna, he is decorated with six angels carrying candelabras.
Under the altarpieces of the side altars are a " Madonna and Child" by Antonia Sogliani (1492-1544) and Sant ' Agnes of Andrea del Sarto. The tomb of Emperor Henry VII is a work of Tino da Camainos from the year 1315.
Mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the apse
Pulpit
Beccafumi: Moses and the Golden Calf
Transept of the Cathedral
Marble columns
Organ
The organs in the cathedral of Pisa in 1980 by the organ builder Mascioni ( Azzio, Va. ) was built. The main organ has 74 registers and two carillons, over four manual divisions and two pedal works. In the registers of the (main ) pedal is partially about transmissions, extensions and extendierten transmissions. The tracker action are electric.
- Couple Normal Couplers: I / II, III / II, IV / II, III / I, IV / I, IV / III, I / P, II / P III / P IV / P
- Suboktavkoppeln: I / I, III / I, III / II, III / III, IV / I, IV / II, IV / III, IV / IV
- Superoktavkoppeln: I / I, I / II, II / II, III / I, III / II, III / III, IV / III, IV / IV, I / P III / P IV / P
There are also in the cathedral choir a small mechanical organ which was also built by Mascioni.
- Pairing: Manual / P
Legends
In the nave a bronze candlestick by Vincenzo Possenti depends of 1587, but the design is by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi. There is the story that the laws of oscillation of a pendulum is said to have been found on the candlestick Galileo Galilei. Should it have been a chandelier in this church that brought him to the law, it can not have been this chandelier However, since Galileo Galilei published the law by 1584.
Between the north aisle and the western facade can be found on the outer wall of the cathedral on a pillar a stone with many black dots. From this stone we are told that he was the devil. If you count two consecutive points after, we arrive at a different result each.