Pisa Museo Aperto

Location(s)

The Royal Palace, next to the Carrara Square, was built in 1555 on the project of the Florentine architect Baccio Bandinelli by order of Cosimo I Medici. It stands in the place of the ancient “Podestà Court” and of many private houses and tower-houses.  This palace, large but sober in its almost undecorated style, was often inhabited by representatives of the Medici dynasty. Here princes and ambassadors were officially received and somptous feasts were held. The princess Cristina Lorena stopped in this palace in Pisa on her way from Leghorn to Florence, where she was going as spouse to Grand Duke Ferdinando I. In 1600 Maria de’ Medici was welcomed in the same palace while travelling to Paris, where she was to become the wife of the king of France. In 1661 stopped here Margherita d’Orléans, promised to the Florentine Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici.

Three years later was signed here an agreement between the ambassadors  of pope Alexander VII and those of Louis XIV the king of France, an agreement reached thanks to the mediation of Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici. At the end of the century, more precisely in 1694, the widow of Ferdinand II, Vittoria della Rovere, died here, and three years later was the turn of the famous doctor at the Granduke’s court, Francesco Redi.

Also during the 18th and the 19th century the Royal Palace was the official residence of the Tuscan Grand Dukes when they stayed in Pisa, particularly the Lorraine and above all Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo I, who liked to live there during the winter. Also the Savoy inhabited the palace sometimes after the unification of Italy.
 

Today the palace is the seat of the Fine Arts and Archaeological Soprintendenza of Pisa and Leghorn and houses the National Museum, where one can admire rich art collections and historical armours displayed in the elegant surroundings of the past.