Palaces, towers and villas

Palazzo del Collegio Puteano
Palazzo della Carovana
Palazzo delle Vedove
Torre dei Gualandi
Villa di Corliano

The Palazzo del Collegio Puteano (Palace of the Putean College) is a building in Piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa, Italy.

The palace, located near to the Church of St Rocco, was built in the present form between 1549 and 1598, by joining a group of previous houses.

In 1605, it was given in perpetual rent to the Knights of St Stephen, to host some students from Piedmont, by order of Archbishop Carlo Antonio Dal Pozzo, from whom the name Puteano is derived.

Between 1608 and 1609 the façade was decorated with allegoric frescoes by Giovanni Stefano Marucelli. After the suppression of the Knights, the college was closed in 1925, but it opened again in 1930 when the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa used the building as Home of the Student of the University.

Palazzo della Carovana (also Palazzo dei Cavalieri) is a palace in Knights' Square, Pisa, Italy, presently housing the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

It was built in 1562-1564 by Giorgio Vasari for the headquarters of the Knights of St. Stephen, as a renovation of the already existing Palazzo degli Anziani ("Palace of the Elders"). The name, meaning "Palace of the Convoy", derives from the three year period undertaken by the initiates of the Order for their training, called "la Carovana".

The façade is characterized by a complex scheme with sgraffiti representing allegorical figures and zodiacal signs, designed by Vasari himself and sculpted by Tommaso di Battista del Verrocchio and Alessandro Forzori, coupled to busts and marble crests. The current paintings date however to the 19th-20th centuries.

Amongst the sculptures are the Medici Coat of Arms and that of the Knights, flanked by the allegories of Religion and Justice by Stoldo Lorenzi (1563). The upper gallery of busts of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany were added in the late 16th-early 18th centuries, sculpted by Ridolfo Sirigatti, Pietro Tacca and Giovan Battista Foggini.

The double-ramp staircase was remade in 1821. The rear area is a modern addition (1928-1930) for the Scuola Normale di Pisa. Some halls of the interior house 16th century paintings.

The Palazzo delle Vedove (Italian for Widows' Palace) is a palace in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

The palace, built in the 12th-14th centuries, is sited land which in antique times was the domus of the Bocci family of Pisa. Detail of the medieval edifice can still be seen in the exterior, including a marble quadruple mullioned window partially covered by a rectangular window. On one of the side was once a portico.

The palace was largely renovated in the 16th century, and was subsequently used to house the "widows" of the Medici family. Two covered passages connected the edifice to the Torre De Cantone and then to the church of San Nicola, where the gentlewomen could attend the mass without passing in the streets.

The Torre dei Gualandi is a former tower in Pisa, central Italy, now included in the Palazzo dell'Orologio.

It is located on the north part of the Piazza dei Cavalieri. The tower was in the right part of the present building, the one without the four-light window. Gualandi was the name of an ancient family of Pisa, that owned the tower in the 13th century.

Palazzo dell'OrologioUgolino della Gherardesca, his sons and two grandsons were immured in the tower and starved to death in the 13th century. Dante, his contemporary, wrote about Gherardesca in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy.

The Palazzo al Borgo di Corliano is a villa situated near coast of Tuscany, central Italy, in the valley between Lucca and Pisa, 2 kilometres from the Spa town of San Giuliano Terme. It is one of the numerous villas that built by the Pisan merchants as summer houses, along the fertile west slopes of Mount Pisano.

In 1616, the Florentine Vincenzo Pitti describes the villa of Corliano as "A Lord's Palace, with an outer staircase, a landing in front of the main door, including a fountain and the surrounding land. The most beautiful Palace around Pisa."

On both sides of the villa, decorated with typical Florentine Mannerist 16th century graffiti (harpy eagles, fruit crowns and flowers, birds and other symbols, representing the virtues of Fortress, Abundance and Fortune) are the farm and the oil mill, dating to the end of 17th Century. In 1755, on the occasion of the wedding of Maria Teresa Scolastica Ottavia della Seta Gaetani Bocca with Count Cosimo Baldassarre Agostini Fantini Venerosi, the villa was restored by the Veronese architect Ignazio Pellegrini.

In the vestibule there are some 18th century marble busts representing Roman Emperors, while the vault is painted with a mythological scene representing Paris awarding Venus the fruit, under the watchful June and Minerva's stare. In the lateral ovals there are the Cathedral Square of Pisa, the original view of the villa, Piana della Croce Mount (Apuan Alps), the Gulf of Lerici, two unknown castles and the commissioners' portraits. In the central hall is a vault, with a fresco representing The Gods' Banquet) and months and zodiacal signs allegorical representations, by the Florentine painter Andrea Boscoli. On the walls are 18th century fresco paintings with the Four Seasons, attributed to Natili and Matraini, as are the ones in the little church.

The 4 hectares private park has been changed several times in the centuries, according to the different age's trends. The current garden layout is from the 19th century.

Corliano belongs to a wider estate complex constituted by the ancient villa, the aristocratic chapel, the farm, the oil mill, stables, the kaffeehaus, the park, rural annexes, the boundary wall and monumental entrance, which was under control due to its historical-artistic interest pursuant to Italian Laws.