Pietrasanta

The Pietrasanta territory in the Versilia extends for 41,84 square kilometres, and is divided into two parts separated by a portion of the municipality of Seravezza, comprising a tract of coast, the coastal plain and the hilly offshoot of the Apuane. It reached its present day aspect in 1914 when the district of Forte dei Marmi was detached to constitute an autonomous municipality.

The centre owes its origins and its name to the Lucca Podesta Guiscardo Pietrasanta, who had it built by orders of the republic towards the middle of the XIII century. Lucca was challenged by Pisa and Peitrasanta fell under the power of the latter in 1312. Successively it was subjected to the Lucca Lord of Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli (1316-1328) until his death. It passed in 1341 to Firenze who kept it until the exile of the Duke d’Atene. In the end, Pietrasanta was consigned to the unruly soldiers of the Bishop of Luni, Antonio del Fiesco, to make the offensive of Luchino Visconti Lord of Milan easier, at war with Pisa, who possessed the Fort of Motrone. In 1344 following the victory of Milan, Pietrasanta returned under the dominion of Lucca, then was again subjected to Pisa in 1355. When Lucca regained its autonomy, in 1369, Pietrasanta returned to the regime of the Anziani, and remaining there until 1430. Pledged then to Genova, the town again experienced the government of Firenze in 1484, it was subjugated to Carlo VIII ten years later and again to Luca in 1496 in 1513 by a ruling of Leone X it went definitively to Firenze. Cosimo I accentuated its military centre aspect inserting it in a system of fortifications (Barga, Fivizzano etc,) destined to control northern Toscana and the Valichi Appenninici . From the XVII century Pietrasanta became progressively decadent, mainly caused by the scourge of malaria, from which it could free itself only at the beginning of the 1800s, through the completed regulation of the water. In 1841 Leopoldo II di Lorena bestowed the title of Noble City to Pietrasanta “for the rank assumed, its antiquity, the Lordly buildings, the institutional importance, as well as the residences of many noble and wealthy families”. Among its illustrious sons are recorded the sculptures Lorenzo (ca. 1455-1506) and Stagio Stagi (ca.1496-1563), the physicist Eugenio Barsanti (1821-1864) and the poet Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907).

Visit Pietrasanta:
Pizza del Duomo, ancient urban nucleus, arrived at via the Porta Pisana. The principal buildings of the town face it, among which Palazzo Moroni seat of the Civic Archaeological Museum.
Il Duomo. Dedicated to S.Martino, dominates the centre of the square. The construction goes back to the middle of the 1200s, but during the centuries it has been remodelled and enlarged several times. Externally it is covered with marble. Internally, divided in three naves, are found murals by Aldemollo, together with other important works of art.

S.MARTINO'S CHURCH (DOME)
Built in the XIV sec. where a church rose already attested in the preceding century, the Church of S.Martino was object in the XVII sec. of an imposing renewal that brought to the 300 and 400 altars substitution. Meaningful jobs of restructuring were had during the '800.
Mail above an ample staircase of marble, introduces a marmoreal façade with four smooth pillars that delimit three spaces finished aloft by sequences of order bows acute that are also followed on the broadsides. To the center of the façade, the great decorated rose window richly and, above the three doors, lunette to all sixth with bas-reliefs raffiguranti the Crucifixion (to the center), the Resurrezione (to the left) and the Pity (to the right). A great coat of arms mediceo is set above the central door, beside which it is a bas-relief raffigurante S.Giovanni Battista. The characteristic bricks bell tower, that according to the native project had to be dresses again in marble, it is tall around 36 ms. and it goes up again to the sec. XVI.
The plant is to three aisles with transetto and apse. Numerous the works of art preserved to the inside. Of the more ancient sculptural and pictorial outfit they remain a Three hundred wooden Crucifix, the statue in marble of the announced one (XIV sec.) and the painted veneratissimo of the Madonna del Sole referable to a painter of culture tardogotica (XV sec.), visible only on the occasion of festivity in honor. Among the valuable works in marble, they are signalled: the pulpit, operated seventeenth-century ricomposizione joining the pedestal (of Lawrence Stagi,1504) and the compartments of the box with figures of the Evangelists in bas-relief (Bertocco and Phillip Cassoni or Donato Benti, 1508) through a cup with figures of months and signs zodiacali and with the addition of a staircase (Andrew Baratta, 1696); the S.Giovanni; the walled capitals in the pillars and the fonts of Stagio Stagi (XVI sec.); the great candelabra (XVI sec.); the confessional ones and the altars, testimony of the seventeenth-century renewal. Of the pictorial works, besides the mural paintings of the times and the walls of the central aisle of Luigi Ademollo (XIX sec.), the seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century works are remembered: Ascension of Christ (Jacopo Vignali), Saints Agnese and Nicola (shop of Matteo Rosselli), Miracle of S.Martino (Bacchini), Saints Brigida and Biagio (Giovanni Baptist Digerini), Meeting of Christ with the Veronica on the street of the Calvary (Francis Boschi), Virgo of the Rosary (Matteo Rosselli), Last supper (Francis Curradi), Nativity (Pier Dandini), Circumcision (Jacopo Vignali), Saints Caterina and Lawrence (Jacopo Chiavistelli), Immaculate conception (Bacchini), Saints Maria Maddalena and Jacopo (Alexander Cominotti), Resurrezione (Matteo Rosselli), Vote for the preservation from the plague and Outrage to the Madonna of the Sun (round of G.B.Tempesti), Alms of S.Martino and coat of arms mediceo (octagonal table suspended above the aisle, of Jacopo Vignali). Finally the bronzy tiles of the Street Crucises are signalled, the sculptor's work contemporary Marcello Tommasi.
TORRE DELLE ORE
Begun in 1530 and finished later three years, introduced in origin a cuspide. It was consolidated in 1706 and it assumed the actual aspect in 1860.

ROCCHETTA ARRIGHINA - PORTA A PISA
It was built by Castruccio Castracani in the sec. XIV and from him child Arrigo entitled. In the sec. XV was reconstructed by Francione and her Cecca together with it Brings to Pisa. This, only survivor of the three ancient doors of the surrounded building town, introduce the sinopia of a " Annunciazione " attributed to Astolfo Petrazzi (sec. XVII). The original fresco, detached, it is near the Town Building.

S. AGOSTINO'S CHURCH AND CONVENT
The complex constituted from the church of S.Agostino and from the adjoining ex-convent with the characteristic cloister constitutes, together with the other monuments that are leaned out on the Plaza of the Cathedral of Pietrasanta a pole of great historical-artistic interest.
The church was built beginning from the sec. XIV from the monks agostiniani, already present in romitori of the Versilia, that subsequently (sec.XVI) they built the adjoining convent.
The bell tower is of 1780.
Elevated above a brief stairway of marble, the sober façade, also it in marble, is characterized by three great arcs to blind fund, surmounted by an order of elegant Gothic bows by the slender colonnettes.
To unique aisle, with trusses ceiling, the church has a floor prepared on three levels, to follow the slope of the hill to whose feet rise the building, and studded of numerous sepulchral headstones of ancient noble families of Pietrasanta and Lucca.
The nine altars, except the first one to the left they are all adorned of paintings. Particularly remarkable the first altar to the right risalente to the XV sec. and tells some Nativity the subject of the picture stolen in 1921 attributed to Zacchìa the Old one, painter lucchese of the XVI sec., which the lunetta is due raffigurante the Deposition from the Cross it posts in the superior part of the altar; the other altars introduce, in hourly sense, these paintings: Immaculate Conception (sec. XVII, Astolfo Petrazzi), Madonna of the Rosary (sec.XVII, Astolfo Petrazzi), Crowning of the Virgo (1764, of JeanImbert), Annunciazione (sec. XVII, attributed to Matteo Boselli), Gloria of angels that supports an image of the Virgo (1791, unknown author), Madonna with Child; S.Anna and other Saints (sec. XVII,Tommaso Tommasi), Crucifixion (1650 ca., of Francis Curradi); another painting, sets in the apse and raffigurante the Annunciazione,è it operates of Jean Imbert (1763).
Besides these paintings, they are present datable frescos to the XIV-XV century and eighteenth-century mural decorums, that were covered by scialbatura and have been brought to the light with the restaurations.
In the apse it is a valuable wooden choir, recently restored.
Beside the church, the cloister is surrounded by a peristilio of columns of marble and once it was entirely decorated by lunette raffiguranti episodes of the life of S. Agostino, illustrated under by brief writings in Latin mails to the paintings, every interposed by a small coat of arms. Of such frescos are visible today the seven lunettes of a side and a lunetta on the adjoining side, in which a window of the Sacristy is inserted.
The author is the painter senese Astolfo Petrazzi (sec. XVII).
Following the suppressions napoleoniche of the monastic orders, the whole complex became town ownership. After the Restoration as remembers a headstone it posts above the entry of the cloister, the convent entertained the school held by the Scolopis and subsequently it has continued to be used as scholastic building. The church, after the leaving of the agostinianis, it continued to be offiziata for a few edited by times the Brotherhood of the SS. Sacrament.
During this as century the church that the convent has suffered a notable I degrade.
The work of restauration, initiated on to end some years 70, the total recovery of the complex, that today is the center of the Center Cultural Luigi Russo and it entertains the Library Comunale"Giosue Carducci has allowed", The Museum of the Sketches.

Moroni's Palace:
Sets on the principal plaza of the historical center, in the immediate proximities of the Cathedral and the monumental complex of the S. Agostino, the Building Moroni, with his characteristic double external staircase and the austerity of the classical decorations of the windows, of nineteenth-century invoice, it is historically one of the more remarkable buildings of the city for the public functions which it has always been destined.
The Building derives from the union of two preexisting buildings: in the XVII sec. the Community of Pietrasanta decided to acquire a house of his Fathers bordering Agostiniani with the residence of the notary Morrone Morroni, left in inheritance to the same community (of this legacy is testimony a headstone it posts on a side of the building) and this with the purpose to give a more suitable setup to the Chancellery comunitativa and to the Pious Mountain and to furnish a more comfortable abode to the Chancellor. Modifications were introduced then during the 800 and in the 900 first part.
The insides architecturally introduce interesting elements, what the times to cruise of the plain earth, the floors that adorn some rooms to the first floor, the great saloon that is extended for the whole width of the building to the second floor and that it receives light from a lantern it posts on the coverage.
Over that center of the Chancellery and, therefore, also of the file in which the actions of all the working institutions were preserved on the whole territory of the Headed one or Vicariato of Pietrasanta, the building it became then center of the Town hall and man he/she remained up to the last world conflict. Subsequently used for the offices of varied corporate body and associations, the building today e' center of the Town Historical file and the Archaeological Museum Versiliese Bruno Antonucci.

PIAZZETTA DEL CENTAURO
Inaugurated in 1995, the small plaza with you furnish of white marble it entertains the monumental bronze The " Centaur ", work of the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, from him given to the city.

ROCCA DI SALA AND GUINIGI'S PALACE
In dominant position on the hill behind the city center, the Fortress was restructured by Castruccio Castracani in the sec. XIV and enriched of a residential palazzetto by Paul Guinigi (sec. XV). It entertained illustrious characters among which emperors and pontiffs. In the sec. XVIII was unarmed and sold for order of Leopoldo I Granduca in Tuscany.

PANICHI'S PALACE(o CARLI)
Built in the sec. XV from Thomas Panichi, subsequently passed in ownership of the family Carli. It has subìto in the time it lavishes architectural transformations.

MONUMENTO A LEOPOLDO II
Devoted Leopoldo II of Lorena to the Granduca in Tuscany, the monument it is work of the sculptor pietrasantese Vincent Santini (sec. XIX).

PALAZZO PRETORIO
In the sec. XIV was acquired by the Community, after belongs to Perotto of the you Bewitch. It has subìto different interventions of restructuring (XV, XVIII and XIX sec.). It was center from the XIV to the XIX century of the Vicar and the Captain of Justice (coats of arms in marble on the façade and in the entry of the Theater) and then of the Pretura. Today it entertains town offices (public education, culture, social). From the central front door it is accessed the Town Theater.

FONTE DEL MARZOCCO - COLONNA DELLA LIBERTÀ
Said of the marzocco because decorated with the Florentine lion, the source in origin rose on the plaza. In the sec. XIX was transferred and adapted in the actual position next to the slope for the Fortress, where a marmoreal insignia remembers the passage of Pietrasanta under the dominion in Florence (sec. XVI). Such event is also celebrated by the Columns of the Liberty, also surmounted by the Marzocco, Donato's Benti work (sec. XVI).

S.LEONE'S MONASTERY - "IL PUGILATORE"
Built in the sec. XVI in honor of Pope Leone X, the monastery had a cloister and a church devoted to S.Chiara. It entertained the Clarisses and as female conservatory was used and then as school. The building, seriously damaged, it was dejected at the end of the years 50 and of it the bell tower remains (only sec. XVIII).
In the proximities, sculpture in marble The pugilatore of Francis Messina, given to the city in 1997.

S.NICOLA DI SALA'S CHURCH
Remembered in documents of the sec. XIV, the small church posts at the Street of the Theater was restored and modified in the XVII sec. and in 1923.

CASA NATALE DI PADRE EUGENIO BARSANTI
In the central Street Mazzini is found the house (not visitable) where in 1821 Father Eugene Barsanti was born, inventor together with Felice Matteucci of the motor to burst.

CHIESA DI S.ANTONIO ABATE
Documented since the sec. XIV, the church was in origin devoted to S.Biagio and center of the homonym brotherhood. S.Antonio Abate was entitled to the beginning of the sec. XIX. Of ownership of the Brotherhood of the Mercy, to the inside introduces Ancient wooden statues raffiguranti S.Biagio and S.Antonio Abate and frescos of the sculptor and contemporary painter Fernando Botero (1993).

CHIESA E CONVENTO DI S.FRANCESCO
The Church of S.Francesco and the attached convent were built in the XVI sec. to work of the PP.Francescanis that were transferred here by the romitorio of S.Maria of the Graces to the Stregaia. During the XVII sec. the before loggiato were built the church, the western wing of the convent, the chapel devoted to S.Antonio by Padua (which is entered to the right by a door some loggiato) and the soprastante conventual library. The aisle and the choir were widened in the sec. XIX.
It has here center the Parish of the SS.Salvatore, originally situated near the homonym church that rose in the area currently occupied from the city hospital.
The church is introduced rich inside marbles, particularly in the altars, in the walls of the presbytery and in the arcades.
Among the paintings, the Stations of the Street are signalled Crucis set in the side chapels in marmoreal frames adorned of make a will of it of angels, the great cloths of the Dispute of the Doctors and the Hunting party of the profanatoris from the temple and the circles with Saints francescani, all due eighteenth-century works to his Father Alberico Carlini, francescano student of Ottavio Dandini and Sebastiano Conca; besides, the eighteenth-century cloth of Anton Domenico Gulls raffigurante St. Luigi Re of France posts to the left in the first altar, recently restored. In the Chapel of S.Antonio a shovel of Anthony Fidani is found (XVII sec.). The mural paintings of the Miracles of S.Antonio you post in the external loggiato I am work of Luigi Ademollo (XIX sec.), to which are due also the lunettes with episodes of the Life of S.Francesco that adorn the cloister.
I am, finally, to remember the organ, of seventeenth-century invoice and then restored and strengthened in the XIX sec. from the teacher pistoiese Agati and the sculptures in bronze that adorn the ambone and the greatest altar, work of the contemporary artists versiliesi Romano Cosci and Franco Miozzo.
The cloister of the convent, with columns of marble and times to cruise in the ambulatories, introduces a well surmounted from two columns and from a lintel in marble to the center of the paved courtyard.
The bell tower in bricks has been built in the sec. XVII.
In the before lawn put e' the sculpture in bronze St. Francis of the sculptor contemporary American Harry Marinsky, given to the citta' in the year 2000.

"IL GUERRIERO"
Monumental work in bronze of the Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero, from him given to the city in 1992.

PALAZZO DELLA POSTA
Itwas built out for decree of the Granduca Ferdinando The Medical de' in 1592 of the ancient Door to Mass, that was opened in correspondence of the actual Street Mazzini. Provided of a stall able winds horses, it had function of inn and hotel.

CASA NATALE DI GIOSUE CARDUCCI
Here it was born in 1835 the poet Giosue Carducci. The building, national monument, was acquired by the Commune of Pietrasanta in 1912 with a public signature. It preserves memoirs and heirlooms.

PIEVE DI S.GIOVANNI E S.FELICITA
Documented since the year 855, have subìto destructions, restaurations and changes that it have transformed the primitive structure of it. To the inside, sculptures and frescos. The bell tower is of the sec. XVI. In the courtyard of the parsonage, well in marble of the sec. XVI.