It not only exerted great influence in the regions of Pisa and Lucca

It not only exerted great influence in the regions of Pisa and Lucca, but went on to affect the architecture of several Mediterranean countries, among them Southern Italy, Corsica, Provence, and, especially, Sardinia. One of the earliest examples of the emerging style-new, despite its evident ties to previous Early Christian source-is the Basilica of San Piero a Grado, located a few miles from Pisa, which was built at the beginning of the 11th century. A bit later, in the second half the 12th century, the cathedral of Pisa, designed by Buschetto, was begun, although it was not finished until the beginning of the 13th century under the direction of Buschetto's successor Rainaldo. The result is a

masterpiece of Romanesque architecture in which Early Christian, Lombard, and Arabic influences are masterfully interwoven. This was the period of great prosperity for Pisa, due mainly to intensive trade with the Orient which developed as an offshoot of her active partecipation in the first Crusade and the alliance she forged with the Normans at the end the 11th century. the city became at the time the seat of a bishopric whose jurisdiction extended to Sardinia and Corsica. In the 12th century the Pisans joined forces with Emperor Frederick Redbeard,

and this led to the annexation of vast territories of Tyrrhenian coast, Calabria, Sicily, and all of Sardinia, as feudal possessions. During these centuries the great names in Pisan art emerged: Bonanno in the 1100s century and Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in the 1200s. The Pisanos, father and son, made Pisan sculpture one of the foremost styles in Italy. In 1173, admist a hundred difficulties, the Campanile, the famous Leaning Tower, was begun. In the second half of the 13th century, Giovanni di Simone, an architect who was crearly under the influence of French Gothic architecture then starting to be felt in Italy, designed the Camposanto Monumentale (cemetery), as well as the churches of Santa caterina and San Francesco. His contemporaries in painting, the Pisan masters Francesco Traini and the Master of The Triumph of Death (from them name of the unknown painter's fresco cycle in the Camposanto), were greatly influenced by the Sienese, unlike their successors who would fall more under the sway of Florentine painting. Then, in 1284, the Pisans, whose fleet had in the meantime eclipsed that of another great sea republic, Amalfi, suffered a serious setback when they were soundly beaten by the Genoese at Meloria. This led to a long period of crisis, accentuated by constant bickering among the various factions of the citizenry. During the 14th century, Pisa's political and economic decline was even more pronounced. Deprived of a fleet of her own, she was forced to helplessy look on as Sardinia was conquered by the Aragonese while, at the same time, she was sucked more and more into the sphere of influence of nearby Florence. And, in fact, in 1406, debilitated by a long siege, the Pisans surrendered to the Florentine who thus permanently added Pisa to their dominions. Nevertheless, a slow but steady economic revival market the next decades. In 1472, the University of Pisa, still a renowned center of learning today, was officially opened and the city enjoyed a brief period of indipendence when Charles VIII of France entered Italy in 1494. As soon as the Medicis regained possession of Pisa, they embarked on a number of ambitious building projects, especially in the port area, which went on throughout the 16h and 17th centuries and which proved of great benefit to the city.