In the city of Pisa, in Tuscany region, Italy

 There's more to Pisa than its Leaning Tower.

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(in Italy's Tuscany region on the plain of the Arno River, some six miles (10 km) from the Ligurian Sea and 50 miles [80 km] west of the city of Florence). Ancient Pisa, had become a Christian bishopric by 313 CE. It survived the collapse of the Roman Empire to remain the principal urban center of Tuscany. The city revived in the 11th century to become a thriving commercial center. Its participation in the Crusades secured positions for Pisan traders in Syria, and thereafter Pisa grew in strength to rival Genoa and Venice. In the 13th century, Pisa benefitted from the support of the German emperors in its conflicts with Genoa at sea and with its Tuscan rivals. (These struggles culminated in Pisa’s defeat by the Genoese fleet at the famous Battle of Meloria in 1284.)

+ Despite that defeat, Pisa became a center of woolen manufacturing late in the 13th century and remained the chief port of Tuscany. Pisan prosperity was reflected in the casatorre, a tall inhabited tower built of brick and stone, Internal struggles helped to bring about the occupation of Pisa by the Florentines in 1406. Merchandise continued to pass through the city until the 15th century. When French armies invaded Italy in 1494, Pisa reasserted its independence; the city sustained a series of wars and sieges until Florence reconquered it in 1509. Pisa grew again after the mid-18th century. In WWII Pisa suffered damage in 1944 when fighting took place on the Germans’ Gothic Line of defenses. The churches damaged at that time were subsequently restored.

+ Pisa is now a university town renowned for its art and architectural treasures. The city also retains much of its circuit of walls. The city is distinguished above all by a group of buildings in the Piazza del Duomo, the " Square of Miracles," at the northwestern end of the medieval walled city. This piazza contains the cathedral, or Duomo; the baptistery; the campanile, or Leaning Tower of Pisa; and the camposanto, or cemetery. The cathedral, begun in 1063, has a nave with double-vaulted aisles and transepts with single-vaulted ones, and a cupola at the intersection of the two axes. On the western front, the range of arches running around the base of the cathedral is repeated in four open arcades. A marvelous bronze door (ca. 1180) by Bonanno Pisano, survives on the southern side. Inside the cathedral is a pulpit carved in white marble by Giovanni Pisano. The circular baptistery, begun in 1152 but completed in the 14th century, is covered by a dome surmounted by a cone. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, begun in 1174 and completed in the 14th century, is also constructed of white marble The uneven settling of the campanile’s foundations during its construction gave the structure an odd inclination that is now about 17 feet (5.2 meters) out of the perpendic With the medieval Duomo as its backdrop, the Old Town square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.