Piazza Martiri Della Liberta - Pisa

Originally, the area of the square was occupied by the Monastery of San Lorenzo. The monastery was demolished around 1815

The Piazza Martiri Della libertà was inaugurated in 1833 and was laid out to a design by the architect Alessandro Gherardesca at the behest of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando III, who, with the definition of the large pseudo-rectangular space, defined the new urban and aesthetic canons of the Restoration followed.
In the center of the tree-lined frame is the statue of Pietro Leopoldo I, created by L. Pampaloni in 1829 on the high marble plinth, decorated with bas-reliefs by E. Santarelli.
The urban section in which the square is located is of great historical importance and was called civitate vetera in the Middle Ages due to the presence of ruins of the Roman city. Also important is the building fabric that defines its boundaries. On the north side is the medieval complex of the former convent of Saint Anna, which today houses the school of the same name; to the east is the 13th-century St. Catherine's Church and the square in front of it, which was created by the demolition of several buildings and was used as a burial ground as early as the Middle Ages. On the east side you can still see the small oratory of the Compagnia del Crocione, which was closed in 1782 and is now a theater hall.
However, much of the central space of the present square was occupied from the end of the 11th century by the church of S. Lorenzo alla Rivolta with its hospital and monastery, and by the palace of Count Neri di Donoratico, which was already built at the end of the 11th century. was demolished at the end of the 14th century.
The complex of S. Lorenzo was ceded in 1815 by the Grand Duke to the Municipality of Pisa, so that it could tear it down and prepare the project for the new square. It took about fifteen years to come to the final design, years during which the area was given to horse tamers and used by washerwomen to hang their laundry, much to the outrage of the entire population.

Willem Vandenameele