Pisa Museo Aperto

Location(s)

Since the early XIIIth century, and in a few cases even before, the main maritime cities constructed a complex of docks and buildings exclusively intended for building and fixing ships, usually galleys and sailing ships, but also boats. This kind of structures had a number of docks and basins (sometimes artificial basins), which were surrounded by stocks, warehouses and workshops. The Italian words “arsenale” and “darsena” come from the Arabic dar-as-sina‘a, originally meaning “building house”. In Pisa the local shipyard was called tersana or terzana, in Genoa darsena, in Venice arzanà, in Barcelona drassanas, in Castile taraçanas.

The construction of the Pisan shipyard dates back to the 13th century. It was strategically placed in the city’s western area, along the river Arno, in the part close to the sea. The shipyard’s wide dock was linked to the river through a channel from which galleys could go in and out. The whole area was gradually surrounded by fortifications. A special communal council, called Opera della Tersana, was entrusted with the management of the shipyard. Its statutes, which have been preserved up today, let us know in detail the rules governing this institution (the Opera della Tersana) and the functioning of the shipyard itself. Its workshops were used not only to build new galleys, but also, or probably above all, to repair galleys already in service. Though not as large as the Venetian shipyard (the so-called arzanà), the Pisan one was doubtless a big complex. There worked many skilled artisans, specialized in building hulls, masts, wooden castles, oars, rowlocks and all the wooden parts of a ship. Other artisans were specialized in the sails division, some others in the shrouds division, without mentioning the smiths who were in charge of constructing anchors, rostra and all the metal ware. Eventually there were those who pitched the hulls, their work aimed at waterproofing the hull’s wooden boards using a wide range of pitches and natural resins. Medieval shipyards are an example of centralized factories of the pre-industrial age, factories where highly specialized artisans worked in a well organised system of labour division.