Pisa, Story of a Cathedral Square

One of the most famous squares in the world, the Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, Italy, was built over a period of several centuries. But since styles of architecture changed very slowly at the time, and hundreds of years of the elements have since washed over the piazza, the many buildings look to us like the result of a single act of creation. These magnificent monuments, best known of which is the campanile, or Leaning Tower, bear witness to a time when Pisa was a powerful seaport.

`Varied and brilliant shots cause an interplay of the close and distant shapes ... or stress the contrast between the architectural masses and the horizontal nature of the countryside. It is obvious that if the important monuments of various countries were studied in this way, a tremendously useful pictorial history of architecture could be established, of considerable didactic interest.' UNESCO

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