"Piazza dei Cavalieri" Pisa Travelogue by Willettsworld

The huge building on the north side of this square is the Palazzo dei Cavalieri, home to one of Pisa University's most prestigious colleges: the Scuola Normale Superiore. Designed by Vasari in 1562, the building, which is covered in exuberent black and white "sgraffito" decoration (designs scratched into wet plaster), served as the headquarters of the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano, an order of knights created by Cosimo I in 1561 (whose statue stands outside).

Also on the piazza is the clock tower of the Palazzo dell'Orologio, where Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, suspected of having betrayed his fellow Pisans in the fateful battle where Genoa decisively crushed Pisan naval might, was locked up to starve to death along with his sons and grandsons. The tragic story was immortalized by both Dante in his "Inferno" and Shelley in his "Tower of Famine".