Description
Antique print dated 1895.
The page is over 115 years old and in good condition.
In order to enhance and protect the page we have set in within a bespoke frame and mount.
Frame size 400mm x 370mm. available also in a
gold frame, your choice. RtW.52.
Entitled – Pisa. The Baptistry, The Cathedral, and the Leaning Tower.
Below the picture an inscription reads:
Pisa. – We now run back from Carrara to Avenza and thence to Pisa, the journey occupying about an hour and a half over the Italian Mediterranean Company’s system.
This once powerful city contains but 37,500 inhabitants, and is situated on both banks of the Arno, six miles from the sea.
Lofty walls protect Pisa from the wind, while further shelter is afforded by the Monti Pisani, which looms up on the east and north-east.
The chief part of the city is known as the Lungarno, a broad and handsome boulevard, extending along both sides of the river the whole length of the town.
On the north and more sheltered side, and particularly on the Lungarno Regio, the chief hotels, cafes, and shops are found.
The river is crossed by four bridges, the newest of which, Ponte Solferino, was finished in 1875.
The chief open space in Pisa is called the Piazza del Duomo, which is shown in our photograph, and in which are situated the Cathedral, the world-famous Leaning Tower, the Baptistry, and the Campo Santo – a group of buildings unsurpassed in Europe.
The Cathedral, shown in the centre above, was commenced after the great naval victory of the Pisans at Palermo in 1063.
It is a basilica with a nave and double aisles, and transept flanked with aisles.
The interior measures 312ft. long by 106ft. wide, the whole surmounted by an elliptical dome.
This remarkable perfect edifice is entirely of marble, as indeed are all the other buildings in the Piazza.
The interior of the Cathedral is supported by sixty-eight ancient Roman and Greek columns, brought from conquered cities.
The Baptistry, the great building to the left in our photograph, was begun in 1153, but not completed until 1278.
It is an enormous but yet beautiful circular structure, over 100ft. in diameter.
The height is about 190ft., and there are four entrances.
The Campanile, or Clock Tower, to the right in the background above, was commenced in 1174 and finished in 1370.
It rises in eight stories, is 179ft. high, and leans 13ft. over its foundations.
Authorities are now satisfied that the leaning tower was thus designed originally, for its foundtions are quite horizontal.
Galileo availed himself of this tower to conduct experiments in the laws of gravitation.
This famous tower is ascended by 294 steps, and it contains seven bells, the largest weighing six tons.
The bells are hung in such a way as to counteract the inclination of the tower.
The Campo Santo, or cemetery, was founded in 1188; its founder brought 53 ship-loads of earth from Mount Calvary, in order that the citizens of Pisa might ultimately rest in holy ground.
If you buy an item and then see it relisted this is because we occasionally have more than one available, each page is
original and not a photocopy.
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