Italian - Italy English (United Kingdom) Deutsch (DE-CH-AT) French (Fr) Español     PISA     PISA TOUR   PISA DIRECTORY   PISA HOTEL     PISA AIRPORT     PISA CAR RENTAL   PISA NEWS       Widget Pisa facebook pisa
pisa
 

PISA

...oltre la Torre Pendente.
Pisa Aziende Vivere a Pisa Studiare a Pisa Visitare Pisa
Google TOP 10 since 1996!   HOTELS PISA  | Città | Mare | Colline |   ALBERGHI PISA | RESIDENCE PISA |  AGRITURISMO PISA | B&B PISA
hotel pisa
HOTEL PISA pisa hotel best price

promozione hotel pisa

   
 
     

PISA
PISA ULISSE ALITALIA
Ulisse Alitalia Pisa Online

by

PISA Dalle origini all'Alto Medioevo Dalle origini all'Alto Medioevo
PISA L'ascesa della Repubblica  Marinara L'ascesa della Repubblica  Marinara
PISA Il declino militare e politico Il declino militare e politico
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni
Visita la Città di Pisa  

LOCALITA' di Pisa

Pisa LOCALITA' Cascina
Comune Cascina
Pisa LOCALITA' Il Valdarno da Pisa a Pontedera
Pisa la Val di Cecina La Val di Cecina
Pisa località di Peccioli Peccioli
Comune Peccioli
Pisa località di San Miniato San Miniato
Comune San Miniato
LOCALITA' VOLTERRA PISA Volterra
Comune Volterra

Versione Italiana Versione Inglese

Sommario Ulisse Pisa Articles
Beyond the Tower
by Aldo Canale
Great tourist attractions
by Gino Nunes
What to do with a great past?
by Marco Tangheroni
Cursed Meloria
by Renzo Castelli
One miracle leads to another
by Lucia Capitani
Balancing inclines
by Lucia Capitani
The art of memory
by Clara Baracchini
Heirs and rivals of the Eternal City
by Clara Baracchini
Sculpted pulpits
by Lea Mattarella
Did he really “raise his mouth from his savage meal”?
by Gaetano Savatteri
“Normal”, in a manner of speaking
by Guglielmo Vezzosi
In the park of kings, a life fit for a king
by Fabrizio Carbone
The horse village
Volterra, splendour and mystery
by Eleonora Tiliacos
Campagna Amica indice
A cuisine that follows the rules of the sea
by Davide Paolini
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni  Chickpea
The sacred legume shaped like a ram’s head
by Giorgio e Caterina Calabrese
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni  Wine
New wines growing fast
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni  Norcinerie alla pisana
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni  Tartufo
Un “bianco” da primato
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni  Olio
Verde nettare di frantoio
PISA Dal XV secolo ai nostri giorni  Formaggio
Profumo di pascoli
 

© Ulisse rivista di bordo Alitalia

 

Servizio realizzato con
progetto "
OPEN CONTENT
"

 

Pisa Online.it

PISA ARTE
Versione Italiana

Volterra, splendour and mystery
by Eleonora Tiliacos

Versione Inglese

In every corner Volterra reveals an atavistic aptitude for nobility, a close-knit medieval structure and the mysterious charm of its Etruscan heritage.

Approfondimenti
Pisa  EVENTI & NOVITA'San Miniato, The hill civilisation
Pisa  EVENTI & NOVITA'Villages rich in history...


Volterra, ancient in every detail and surrounded by thirteenth-century walls, seems suspended between the Val di Cecina and the Val d’Era, dominating a large stretch of the Colline Metallifere - a link between the provinces of Pisa and Siena, yet at the same time entrenched in complete solitude. A position that is all the more surprising if we consider the town’s past and its leading role in both Etruscan and medieval times.
On the surrounding hills, made mostly of sand and clay, erosion has traced ravines and what are known as biancane, snow-white dome-shaped outcrops of sodium sulphate - a fascinating but tortured landscape that only softens into wheat-covered fields and extensive woods further on. The ochre-coloured abyss known as Le Balze, which swallowed up necropolis and suburbs in the past, begins right next to the walls. Seen from the west, the town seems perched on the hill in miraculous equilibrium instead of being solidly rooted on it - and this is a mystery too, almost as much as the pages of Etruscan history of which we know nothing.
Glorious Velathri, originally one of the twelve Etruscan lucumonies, whose trading influence extended over a large part of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea, is still visible everywhere in the town’s close-knit medieval form - it lives on in the Piano di Castello acropolis and in the remains of the walls dating back to the 4th century, in the three stone heads adorning Porta all’Arco and the pyramid-shaped tower of Porta Diana.
Above all in the Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, whose forty rooms hold finds from Velathri along with those from prehistoric and Roman times. The world’s richest collection of Etruscan urns is to be found here, around 600 specimens in tufa, terracotta and alabaster (the “stone of light” that still features largely in the thriving local handicrafts industry) whose reliefs present a series of mysteriously fascinating faces of divinities and heroes. The thousands of works on display include masterpieces such as the Avile Tire stele, the Lorenzini Head, the Urn of the Husband and Wife and the bronze votive statuette renamed by D’Annunzio “Evening Shadow”, a long, slender adolescent figure, almost a child, surprisingly modern in its stylisation, a sculpture that could belong to many epochs and is, in fact, one of the best-loved symbols of Volterra. Just as the Guarnacci Museum is the historical memory of the “ancient town”, the story of its art starting from the Middle Ages is told in the Municipal Art Gallery in Palazzo Minucci Solaini. Among the pictures by Ghirlandaio, Daniele da Volterra and Luca Signorelli there is also a splendid Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino, recently restored. Another painting by Rosso Fiorentino (the Villamagna altar-piece) can be found at Palazzo Vescovile, in the Diocesan Museum of Religious Art, where precious reliquaries are displayed side-by-side with works by Tino di Camaino, Mino da Fiesole and Giambologna. Besides the museum, the town’s indelible images are revealed in its streets and piazzas - in the walls, interrupted by nine gates that seem to open onto time rather than onto a physical space; the upward thrust of the Buonparent tower-house and the portal of San Michele Archangelo; the massive bulk of the Medici Fortress; the wonderful Gothic frescoes in the church of San Francesco and the ruins of the Roman Theatre on the Vallebona slope. At the apex of any real or imaginary route we find Piazza dei Priori, whose grey pietra panchina stone shapes one of the most consistent settings created by the city-republic civilisation in Italy. In addition to the superb Palazzo dei Priori, of course, the dominating presence here is Palazzo Pretorio with the Porcellino tower, so called because of the little stone boar that adorns the front. The Baptistery and the Duomo, Pisan Romanesque gems that face each other in Piazza San Giovanni, act as counterpoint to these noble secular buildings. On crossing their thresholds one is greeted by a baptismal font by Andrea Sansovino and a wooden Deposition that is one of the most beautiful examples of Tuscan thirteenth-century sculpture. Two monumental piazzas at the heart of Volterra reveal its atavistic tradition of nobility, while everywhere the solidity of stone combines with the subtle allure of mystery as if time and space had joined forces to create a Chinese puzzle - not only in the alleys of the old town but also in the sumptuous halls of Palazzo Incontri-Viti, where Visconti shot some of the scenes of his film Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa (Of a Thousand Delights, 1965). The special alchemy of this town and of its ancient spirit transcends solid reality just as light filters through alabaster.

Eleonora Tiliacos

 

:: OFFICIAL WEB SITES ::

HOTEL PISA

PisaOnline Annunci & Banner
Aggiungi qui il link al sito
del tuo Hotel in Pisa!
aggiungi hotel
Vetrina, Booking, Banner,
Link al sito web ufficiale!

 

sailory

.: AZIENDE PISA :.

Pisa Hotels Directory

CANALI di PISAONLINE

PISA AZIENDE PISA AZIENDE
PISA DA VIVERE PISA DA VIVERE
PISA DA VISITARE PISA DA VISITARE
Pisa PISA DA STUDIARE PISA DA STUDIARE
Pisa  EVENTI & NOVITA' EVENTI & NOVITA'
Pisa FOTO GALLERY FOTO GALLERY
COMUNI DI PISA VOLTERRA
COMUNI DI PISA SAN MINIATO
COMUNI DI PISA COMUNI DI PISA
Pisa PARTNERSHIP Ricettività PARTNERSHIP Ricettività
PARTNERSHIP AZIENDE PARTNERSHIP AZIENDE
Pisa STATISTICHE PISAONLINE STATISTICHE PISAONLINE

Pisa PUBBLICITA' PUBBLICITA'

Piazza dei Miracoli di Pisa