Pisa tourist attractions

The bell tower of Pisa Cathedral began to lean while it was still being built in the 12th century, because the soft ground beneath it could not carry its weight. It closed to the public in 1990 and reopened in 2001 after stabilisation work. A climb of 273 steps leads to the top, 58.36 metres up, with views over the lawn of the Piazza dei Miracoli and the roofs of the city. The tower, Cathedral, Baptistery and Camposanto together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Location: Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Access: Timed entry; bags go to the cloakroom before the climb, and children who will not turn 8 by the end of the year cannot go up

Pisa Cathedral was founded in 1064 and consecrated in 1118, its Romanesque plan laid out by the architect Buscheto and later extended, facade included, by Rainaldo. Inside, Giovanni Pisano's carved pulpit (1302 to 1310) and the apse mosaic, where Cimabue painted the figure of Saint John the Evangelist, are the highlights. The bronze lamp in the nave is known as Galileo's lamp, after the legend that its swing set him thinking about the pendulum.

Location: Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Access: Free pass with any Piazza monuments ticket, or a fixed-time pass from the ticket offices on site; hours can vary on Sundays and religious holidays

Founded on 15 August 1152 under the architect Diotisalvi, the Baptistery of San Giovanni is the largest in Italy, with a circumference of more than 107 metres. Nicola Pisano carved its pulpit in 1260, a work that quickly became a model for others. The double dome gives the interior remarkable acoustics, and every thirty minutes an attendant sings a few notes to let the echo fill the building. A spiral staircase climbs to the upper gallery, which looks down on the font and the geometric floor.

Location: Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Access: Ticketed, one of the Piazza dei Miracoli monuments

The Camposanto was founded in 1277 to gather the graves scattered around the Cathedral, and tradition holds that it rose over soil brought from Golgotha during the Crusades. Its long marble cloister was covered with fresco cycles by Buffalmacco, Francesco Traini and others, badly damaged when a fire broke out during a bombing raid in 1944. After decades of restoration the Triumph of Death returned to its original wall in 2018, near the Roman sarcophagi that line the galleries.

Location: North side of Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Access: Ticketed, one of the Piazza dei Miracoli monuments

The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo gathers the original sculpture and treasures removed over the centuries from the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Camposanto. Giovanni Pisano leads the collection with his Virgin and Child groups, joined by the Pisa Griffin, a large bronze of Islamic origin that once crowned the Cathedral apse, and the textiles and insignia of Emperor Henry VII. Rearranged in 2019, the visit ends on a loggia with a direct view of the Leaning Tower.

Location: Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Access: Ticketed, one of the Piazza dei Miracoli monuments

Piazza dei Cavalieri was the political heart of medieval Pisa until Cosimo I de' Medici had Giorgio Vasari rebuild it for the Knights of Saint Stephen in the 16th century. Vasari's Palazzo della Carovana, its facade covered in sgraffito figures, now houses the Scuola Normale Superiore, and the church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri beside it keeps banners captured in naval battles. On the north side, the Palazzo dell'Orologio takes in the tower where Count Ugolino starved to death, a story told by Dante.

Location: Piazza dei Cavalieri, Pisa

Access: Free square; most buildings belong to the university and stay closed to visitors

The National Museum of San Matteo fills a restored medieval convent on the Arno with art from the churches of Pisa and its province, from the early Middle Ages to the 16th century. Its rooms hold sculpture by Nicola Pisano and Donatello and paintings by Giunta Pisano, Simone Martini, Masaccio and Beato Angelico, along with illuminated manuscripts, wooden sculpture and a large collection of medieval ceramics. It shares a combined ticket with the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale.

Location: Piazza San Matteo in Soarta, Pisa

Access: Ticketed; closed on Mondays

Palazzo Blu takes its name from the blue colour uncovered on its walls during restoration, a shade linked to the Russian owners who bought the palace in the 18th century. It shows the Fondazione Pisa collections, a history of Pisan art from the 14th century onward with works by Benozzo Gozzoli and Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, alongside the stately apartments of the first floor and a programme of major temporary exhibitions.

Location: Lungarno Gambacorti 9, Pisa

Access: Ticketed collections; open every day

Santa Maria della Spina is a small Gothic church on the Arno, its facade crowded with pinnacles, tabernacles and statues. It began as the oratory of Santa Maria di Pontenovo and took its present name from a thorn of Christ's crown kept here from 1333, a relic now in the church of Santa Chiara. Repeated flooding led the city to dismantle it in 1871 and rebuild it on higher ground, work that lasted until 1884. A full restoration of the interior and exterior began in spring 2026.

Location: Lungarno Gambacorti, Pisa

Access: Facade visible from the Lungarno at any time; interior opening days at the tourist information points in Pisa

The Orto Botanico was founded in 1543 by the naturalist Luca Ghini as a garden of medicinal plants, and the city's tourist board calls it the oldest university botanical garden in the world. It moved twice before settling in 1591 on its current site, a few minutes' walk from the Piazza dei Miracoli. Greenhouses, a great magnolia growing here since 1787 and the Botanical Museum in the Palazzo delle Conchiglie, its facade decorated in grotesque style in 1752, fill a quiet green block.

Location: Via Luca Ghini 13, with a second entrance at Via Roma 56, Pisa

Pisa's medieval walls were begun in 1155 and still enclose much of the historic centre. After a long restoration, the walkway along the top opened to the public in 2018: about 3 kilometres of path, 11 metres above the ground, running past rooftops, gardens and church towers. The stretch beside the Piazza del Duomo looks straight onto the Leaning Tower, and several access points along the circuit make it easy to walk just one section.

Location: Access points include Torre Santa Maria (Piazza del Duomo), Bastione del Parlascio and Piazza delle Gondole

Access: Ticketed; closes in rain or strong wind

In December 1998, building works near Pisa San Rossore station uncovered an ancient river harbour holding around thirty Roman-era boats, preserved for centuries in the silt of past floods. The Museo delle Navi Antiche opened in 2019 inside the Arsenali Medicei, the Medici shipyards on the Arno, and shows seven of the vessels with their cargoes. The best preserved is the Alkedo, a 1st-century pleasure boat rowed by twelve oarsmen, its name painted in Greek letters on a bench.

Location: Arsenali Medicei, Lungarno Ranieri Simonelli 16, Pisa

Access: Ticketed; closed on Mondays