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Pisa is a city in
Tuscany,
Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the
River Arno on the
Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the
Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral), the city of over 88,332 residents (around
200,
000 with the metropolitan area) contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces and various bridges across the River Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the
Italian maritime republics.
The city is also home of the
University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the
12th century and also has the mythic
Napoleonic Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'
Anna School of Advanced Studies as the best
Superior Graduate Schools in Italy.
History
Ancient times
Pisa lies at the junction of two rivers, the
Arno and the
Serchio, which form a laguna at the Tyrrhenian Sea. The origin of the name, Pisa, is a mystery. While the origin of the city had remained unknown for centuries, the Pelasgi, the
Greeks, the
Etruscans, and the Ligurians had variously been proposed as founders of the city (for example, a colony of the ancient city of
Pisa, Greece).
Archaeological remains from the
5th century BC confirmed the existence of a city at the sea, trading with Greeks and Gauls. The presence of an
Etruscan necropolis, discovered during excavations in the
Arena Garibaldi in
1991, confirmed its
Etruscan origins.
Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city.
Strabo referred Pisa's origins to the mythical
Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of
Troy.
Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described; the settlers from the Alpheus coast have been credited with the founding of the city in the 'Etruscan lands'. The Virgilian commentator
Servius wrote that the Teuti, or
Pelops, the king of the Pisaeans, founded the town thirteen centuries before the start of the common era.
The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast from
Genoa (then a small village) to
Ostia. Pisa served as a base for
Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians, Gauls and
Carthaginians. In
180 BC, it became a
Roman colony under Roman law, as
Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium.
Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name in
Colonia Iulia obsequens.
It is supposed that Pisa was founded on the shore. However, due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 2.5 miles (
4.0 km) away from the coast.
Currently, it is located 6 miles (9.7 km) from the coast. However it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno.
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- published: 05 May 2014
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