Art exhibitions, activities at Parlascio Rampart

The exhibition ‘Lanfranco Cionna, a life in colour. Tra paesi ideali e figure di donne’, an exhibition of works by the artist from the Marche region who has lived for years in Marti, near Montopoli in Valdarno. Inauguration at 4.30 pm. Exhibition included in the price of the entrance ticket to the Walls.

To discover its interior and exterior spaces, its history and the thousand vicissitudes that the structure has gone through, from its use as an icehouse to a garage and an air-raid shelter, on Saturday 19 and 26 April, guided tours. Departure at 5 p.m. from the Bastion, arrival in Piazza dei Miracoli via the high walkway. Ticket €8, €3 for children up to 8 years old

Architecture and history – Built in several stages by Filippo Brunelleschi and Nanni Unghero, the Bastione del Parlascio was created to protect one of the most important city gates and is part of the experiments with which military architects attempted to define new defence systems in the early 16th century. It preserves the remains of the fortification structures that from the 12th century until the first half of the 15th century took turns defending the Parlascio gate, which opened along the medieval city walls at the northern end of Via del Borgo and as such one of the most important city gates on the right bank of the Arno. It was precisely on this bank that work began on the construction of the defensive walls of Pisa, which from 1154 to 1161, under the consulate of Cocco Griffi, developed in seven building lots. At the end of the 16th century, the structure was converted to an icehouse, a function it maintained until the early 20th century. During the Second World War, the Parlascio’s military character was rediscovered and its structures were used as an air-raid shelter. After the war, the bastion was divided into three separate properties and sold to private owners. In the course of these decades, a bar was attached to the structure and a garage was built inside the bastion.