Pisa Museo Aperto

Location(s)

This palazzo was built in the 1300s, at the time of the apex of power of the Gambacorti or Gambacorta family, in short when Piero became ruler of Pisa for more than twenty years ( from 1370 to 1392). Already in the first half of the 1300s the family was a protagonist of the political life in Pisa, heading the pro-Florentine faction of the Bergiolini, in opposition to those of the Raspanti, who were totally against any political alliance with Florence. But this ancient and powerful family from Pisa, which had amassed wealth especially by maritime trade, had lived in that same part of the Lungarno already for many years. We are aware of the existence of many houses belonging to the Gambacorti in the area called San Gilio, in the district of Chinzica, where later their palazzo was built. The Gambacorti had economical interests all over the Mediterranean area, but especially in southern Italy, in Sicily, in Sardinia and in the Balearics where, in Majorca, several members of the family were consuls for the mercantile state of Pisa.

The façade of the palazzo has preserved its original style, rather severe, dating to the 1300s. Maybe during the Middle Ages the palazzo included also a Ghibelline battlement. Certainly the modern battlement is the fruit of restoration work dating to the first decades of the 1900s. During the Florentine rule, from the beginning of the 1400s, at the two sides of the main entrance there were two small marzocchi, two small lions, symbols of Florence, which carried two coats of arms, one with a lily, and the other with the Florentine Guelph cross. On the top of the entrance an inscription recalls the second conquest of Pisa by Florence, in 1508. On the inscription there are the coats of arms of the three Florentine Commissaries, who attached the plaque, after having entered Pisa in June. These were Antonio Filicari, Alamanno Salviati and Niccolò Capponi. The internal courtyard houses the remains of ancient columns and a further inscription which recalls the nomination as Consuls of the Sea of a member of the Altoviti family and a member of the Del Neri family by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, in 1618. Beginning in 1689 this palazzo was chosen as headquarters for the Commune of Pisa.