Piazza del Duomo, Pisa
Italy · Europe
About
The Piazza dei Miracoli (Italian: [ˈpjattsa dei miˈraːkoli]; 'Square of Miracles'), formally known as Piazza del Duomo ('Cathedral Square'), is a walled 8.87-hectare (21.9-acre) compound in central Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important center of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. It was all owned by the Catholic Church and is dominated by four great religious edifices: Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, the Leaning Tower of Pisa (the cathedral's campanile or bell tower), and the Camposanto Monumentale ('Monumental Cemetery'). Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is also the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito ('New Hospital of the Holy Spirit'), which now houses the Sinopias Museum (Museo delle Sinopie) and the Cathedral Museum (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo).
The square's popular name was coined by the Italian writer and poet Gabriele D'Annunzio who, in his novel Forse che sì forse che no (1910), described the square as the "prato dei Miracoli", or 'meadow of miracles'. It is also sometimes called the Campo dei Miracoli ('Field of Miracles'). In 1987, the whole square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.