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The
quarter of Santa Maria (Saint Mary) is characterised by a beautiful part
of the Lungarni (i.e. the part
of the city along the river) i.e. Lungarno Pacinotti with a lot of old palaces as Palazzo
Regio.
Palazzo
Regio (i.e. the Royal Palace) is an important building of the XVI century,
where the Medici, the Lorena and then the Savoy families lived for a long
time.
In
the old palaces of the Lungarno Pacinotti lived also writers, poets and
scientists like Dickens, D’Annunzio, Marconi.
There
is also a nice little church called Madonna
dei Galletti.
The
other important Lungarno that is part of the quarter of Santa Maria is
called Simonelli, from the name
of the engineer that rebuilt this part of the city along the river. In
this site we find the Arsenali
Medicei (i.e. the Arsenal of
the Medici family), where in the XVI century the galleys of the
Knights of the Order of Santo Stefano[1]
(Saint Stephan) were built.
In
front of the Arsenali we have the medieval fortification called Cittadella
Vecchia, with its beautiful Tower, the Guelf
Tower.
Through
via Santa Maria we arrive to the Miracle
Square, with the most famous bell-tower of the world, the Leaning
Tower of Pisa.
Via
Santa Maria is full of Universities' Departments (humanistic and
scientific Universities), in Pisa there is one of the first university in
Italy (the Law University opened in 1343).
In
the via Santa Maria beside the universities we have also an important Botanic
Garden of the XV century.
The
well-known Piazza dei Cavalieri (i.e. The Knights Square) is also a part of the
Santa Maria quarter, here we find the University called La
Normale founded by Napoleon in 1810, on the model of the école
Normal of Paris, in the palaces where once lived the knights of the Order
of Santo Stefano.
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