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Visiting Pietrasanta - Information and travel guide
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Have you
ever thought of visiting a place where the sea meets the hills,
where ancient history is combined with modern art and there is
also space for shopping and good food? Here, Pietrasanta
is such a place. An ancient village nestled at the foot of the
Apuan Alps, a place that was once a crossroads of illustrious
people and today is a refuge for artists. |
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Famous
sculptures adorn the squares and streets of the city, numerous art galleries
and several great seasonal exhibitions animate
Piazza del Duomo and the Church of Sant' Agostino.
Via Stagio Stagi and Via Barsanti, are all a
succession of shops and craft shops, cafes and restaurants
irresistible....
 Pietrasanta
is a Tuscan town in the province of
Lucca and
has about 25,000 inhabitants. It is considered the historical capital of
Versilia and rises on the slopes of a hill, the Colle di
Sala. The name of the city derives from the Milanese nobleman Guiscardo
Pietrasanta who, during his mandate as mayor of Lucca, founded it in
1255, during the struggles with the Ghibelline Republic of
Pisa. Subsequently, the village was fortified with an
imposing walls by
Castruccio Castracani,
lord of Lucca since 1316. A coveted city by Pisa,
Genoa and
Florence,
Pietrasanta is located along the Via Francigena and has always been a
border and transit area. Read the
history of Pietrasanta.
One of the main features of Pietrasanta, like all of Versilia, is the
link with marble processing. Of ancient origins, this work,
during the nineteenth century began to be perfected, to "rise up", when
the first artisan workshops were born that then in a short time,
multiplied. In 1843, in Pietrasanta, a real school was inaugurated,
where the precious art of marble working was taught. Today it is the
Stagio Stagi Institute of Art that carries on the tradition,
transmitting the mastery of the past to hundreds of young people, who
want to learn the best techniques, to transform a piece of marble into a
work of art.
A city tour
To access the historic centre of Pietrasanta, cross Porta Pisana
and admire the Rocchetta Arrighina (a small fortress). You will
soon find yourself in the beautiful Piazza del Duomo, the site of
all the city events, which overlook the most significant monuments of
Pietrasanta: the
Cathedral
with the baptistery, the Church of Sant'Agostino with its
beautiful cloister, the Tower of the Hours, the Column
of Marzocco and the Monument of Leopold II. In 1841 the Grand
Duke declared Pietrasanta "Nobile City" for its antiquity, the beauty of
its buildings, the importance of the institutions, the number of noble
families present
Also worth seeing in Piazza del Duomo are the two buildings of
Palazzo Moroni and Palazzo Pretorio, a civic office building.
For lovers of sculpture, the
Museum of Sketches
(Museo dei Bozzetti) and the International Sculpture Park are not
to be missed. Other interesting museums are the Archaeological Museum
and the Barsanti Museum (dedicated to the internal combustion
engine, invention of
Eugenio Barsanti).
Other local attractions are the Municipal Theatre, the Palla
sculptor's workshop, the birthplace of nobel price Giosuè
Carducci in Borgo di Valdicastello and going down towards the
sea,
Marina di Pietrasanta.
Finally, the streets of the ancient Pietrasanta are also interesting,
such as the characteristic Via del Riccetto with river cobblestones, or
Via della Fontanella. Learn more about the individual attractions
mentioned by reading
what to see in Pietrasanta.
Una passeggiata nell'arte del
marmo
Oltre alla visita del
Museo dei Bozzetti è camminando per le strade cittadine si possono ammirare sculture
e opere di
pittura contemporanea, diventate preziosi arredi della città. Fra
questi citiamo: Il Guerriero di Fernando Botero in Piazza
Matteotti; il San Francesco di Harry Marinsky, di fronte alla
Chiesa di San Francesco; il Pugilatore di Francesco Messina
in via Garibaldi; il Centauro di Igor Mitoraj (artista scomparso
nel 2014) in Piazza Centauro. Fra le pitture: affreschi di Fernando
Botero con il Paradiso e l'Inferno nella Chiesa di Sant'Antonio
in via Mazzini; gli affreschi di Igor Miroraj con L'alba e Il
Tramonto nella sala del consiglio comunale.
A walk in the art of marble
In addition to visiting the Bozzetti Museum, walking through the city
streets you can admire sculptures and works of contemporary painting, which
have become precious furnishings in the city. These include: Fernando
Botero's Warrior in Piazza Matteotti; Harry Marinsky's
San Francesco in front of the Church of St. Francis; Francesco
Messina's Pugilatore in via Garibaldi; Igor Mitoraj's
Centaur (artist who died in 2014) in Piazza Centauro. Among the
paintings: frescoes by Fernando Botero with Paradise and Hell
in the Church of Sant' Antonio in Via Mazzini; frescoes by Igor
Miroraj with L'alba and Il Tramonto in the hall of the municipal
council.
 A
peculiarity of Pietrasanta is that visiting it is easy to come across the
many artisan workshops, in which, yesterday as today, you create sculptures,
mosaics, but also exceptional works of terracotta, clay, bronze, steel. To
preserve and pass on the art of sculpting, Pietrasanta's artisans gathered
together a great association called "Artigianart", with the aim of
demonstrating how one can draw from a block of marble "emotion, form,
sublime art".
Pietrasanta is also an excellent destination for quality, original and
creative shopping. If you only need to choose a place to shop, buy
little and well in Daniela Del Cima's magnificent show-room (via Barsanti 40
at the time you write.
Personaggi famosi legati a
Pietrasanta
 Numerosi
sono i personaggi famosi, che hanno legato il loro nome a Pietrasanta. In primis Giosuè Carducci, che nacque a Valdicastello,
frazione di Pietrasanta, nel 1835. Qui il poeta trascorse la sua infanzia,
ed ancora oggi, è possibile visitare la sua casa natale. Premio Nobel per la
letteratura nel 1906, Pietrasanta lo ricorda ogni anno con il Premio
Nazionale di Poesia a lui dedicato. Michelangelo Buonarroti, qui stipulò diversi contratti, per i marmi
che hanno dato vita ad alcune delle sue opere di maggior prestigio. Anche
Giambologna, l'Ammannati e il
Vasari visitarono a
lungo questi luoghi per il marmo bianco. Sapete poi chi
fu l’inventore del motore a combustione interna? Un
Italiano, un certo
Padre Eugenio
Barsanti, che nacque a Pietrasanta,
al numero 77 di Via Mazzini, il 12 ottobre del 1821. Padre Eugenio riuscì a
brevettare la sua invenzione in Inghilterra. Sono nati a Pietrasanta lo
scultore Stagio Stagi (1479-1561), lo storico e scultore
Vincenzo Santini (1807-1876). Hanno soggiornato a Pietrasanta, anche lungamente: il poeta Gabriele
D’Annunzio, il celebre scultore polacco Igor Mitoraj (Mitoraj
riposa nel cimitero di Pietrasanta) e il grande
scultore colombiano Fernando Botero, Henry Moore, che ha
lavorato molto in Versilia, l'italiano Cascella, Kan Yasuda,
Thimer e molti altri. Oggi a Pietrasanta vive una comunità
internazionale composta da oltre 400 artisti, che rendono Pietrasanta
luogo d'incontro fecondo tra
tradizione e tecnica antica e tecnologia e nuove tendenze
dell'arte contemporanea.
Famous personalities linked
to Pietrasanta
There
are many famous people who have linked their name to Pietrasanta. First
of all Giosuè Carducci, who was born in Valdicastello, a
hamlet of Pietrasanta, in 1835. Here the poet spent his childhood here,
and still today, you can visit his birthplace. Nobel Prize winner for
literature in 1906, Pietrasanta commemorates him every year with the
National Prize of Poetry dedicated to him. Michelangelo Buonarroti,
here signed several contracts, for the marbles that gave rise to some of
his most prestigious works. Giambologna, Ammannati and
Vasari also visited these places for a long time due to the white
marble. Do you know who invented the internal combustion engine? An
Italian, a certain
Father Eugenio Barsanti,
who was born in Pietrasanta, at number 77 Via Mazzini, on October 12th
1821. Father Eugenio managed to patent his invention in England. The
sculptor Stagio Stagi (1479-1561), historian and sculptor
Vincenzo Santini (1807-1876) were both born in Pietrasanta. They
have stayed in Pietrasanta, even for a long time: the poet Gabriele
D' Annunzio, the famous Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj (Mitoraj
rests in the cemetery of Pietrasanta) and the great Colombian sculptor
Fernando Botero, Henry Moore, who has worked a lot in
Versilia, Pietro Cascella, Kan Yasuda,
Ivan Thimerr and many others. Today in Pietrasanta lives an
international community made up of over 400 artists, which make the city
a fertile meeting place between tradition and ancient technique and
technology and new trends in contemporary art.
To get some indication for a tasty stop, read
what to eat in Pietrasanta and
where to eat.
The sea of
Pietrasanta
 Once
you have visited the beauties of Pietrasanta, you can only enjoy the sea.
The pleasant seaside resort of Marina di Pietrasanta, a few
kilometres from the town, stretches for about five kilometres of
beautiful Tyrrhenian coast. Famous and sought after since the early
twentieth century, Marina di Pietrasanta is made up of four centres:
Fiumetto, Tonfano, Motrone and Focette. The
first resort takes its name from the Fiumetto ditch, which flows
into the sea. It is characterized by a lush coastal forest, which is the
public park of La Versiliana, home of the interesting Festival of
the same name. There is the "romantic" eighteenth-century bridge, known
as the "Prince's Bridge" built in honor of the Grand Duke of Tuscany
Leopold I, which was used for the passage of soldiers on horseback
surveillance along the beach. The town of Tonfano owes its name to the
former Tonfalo river, which passed through it until the 1920s and had
its mouth here; it is the richest centre in terms of trade and public
services. The promenade and the promenade are embellished by a long pier,
in the sea side 214 meters, inaugurated in 2008, excellent for a break
with a look at the sea. In Motrone, on the other hand, there was a
coastal fortification, destroyed at the beginning of the nineteenth
century and an ancient and important port of call. The port is very old;
it was active thanks to the Republic of Lucca, which wanted to bypass
Pisa, did not want to pay duties, customs and leaps. When at the
beginning of 1500 Florence conquered Lucca in via definitive, having
already beat Pisa in 1400, lost interest in keeping in operation two
ports, Motrone and Pisano, and then let the nature unsabbby Motrone.
Finally, the locality of Focette, a marshy area for the numerous small "mouths",
mouth from which derives its name. Focette was once the most exclusive
and worldly seaside tourist resort of Versilia in the twentieth century.
Here you will find La Bussola, which together with the Capannina di
Forte dei Marmi, were the local-cult of Versilia nights, temples of
Italian and foreign music of the fifties and sixties. Read on
Marina di Pietrasanta.
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