Piazza Garibaldi - Pisa

Piazza Garibaldi is the square on the north side of Pisa's most famous bridge, the Ponte di Mezzo. It is dominated by the Casino dei Nobile. The statue in the center of the square represents the freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi.

The square is flanked on three sides by historically significant buildings that shaped the social and cultural life in Pisa until the late modern era. Opposite the bridge, as a backdrop, on the corner of the Borgo, stands the building that was the Casino dei Nobili from the mid-1700s, while flanking the square are two structures that belonged to Pisa's earliest hotels. To the west was the Locanda delle Tre Donzelle, which after expansion in the 19th century became the Grand Hotel de l'Arno, where Van Lint had his art and photography laboratory and studio. Opposite, in the same period, was Hotel Europa, giving this square the most central and best location (wide and south-facing) of the city. This center of activity and hospitality was known as piazza di Ponte di Mezzo until the late 1800s, when it was called Piazza Garibaldi.
Slightly off center, heading west, is the bronze statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, made by Ettore Ferrari in 1892 and cast by the Crescenzi foundry in Rome. As with similar statues in other cities of the "hero of two worlds", this Roman sculptor depicts the person in full size and in an anti-hero attitude. This makes the pedestal more important. It depicts episodes from Garibaldi's life, including the fall of Rome and his wound on Aspromonte, which was healed in Pisa. The statue was cast at the Crescenzi foundry in Rome.

Willem Vandenameele