Da villa a civitas: la proiezione urbana di Pisa nell'area di Chinzica tra XII e XIII secolo

Pisa is one of the cities most interested by investigations of urban archaeology and topography in Italy. One of its most studied areas is the district of Chinzica, South of the river Arno. This essay presents the data collected by the joint study of written and archaeological sources available on this urban area, trying to assess the rhythm and the forms of its transformation in the Middle Ages. In fact, around the year 1000 this was still a rural zone satellite of the civitas, but by the end of the 12th century it had become an integrated district of the communal city, included inside the city walls. From the institutional point of view these changes seem to happen from the middle of the 12th century, but the fabric and the connotations of this settlement (foundation of churches, construction of civil buildings and of the infrastructures, material culture) show its first changes by the end of the previous century, with an acceleration during the first decades of the 12th century. In particular, archaeology has documented the densification of the settlement at the expense of the open areas combined with a progressive rationalization of the building process, which was hinged in the new road network, tracing the attempt of urban planning and the desire to coordinate the consumption of land by the public authorities. The new residences were first built using the strongest materials locally available (late 11th/early 12th century: mainly limestone and verrucano, partly lightened by wooden bulkheads) and then newer, lighter and adaptable also to new architectural features (from the second quarter/ mid 12th century: bricks). The archaeological data available on this area, together with the known documentary information, show therefore the timing and ways with which the city of Pisa grew from the beginning of the 12th century, experimenting new forms of urbanization and the adoption of new materials that from the 13th century were used in the foundation so-called “terrenuove” of the county.