Borgo Stretto

Borgo Stretto is Pisa's medieval porticoed street, where merchant loggias and fragments of tower houses preserve the architectural history of a commercial quarter. Its narrow form links covered public space with the buildings of the families who traded and lived here.

Why it matters

The street developed in the Foriporta district, brought within the city's twelfth-century walls. Merchant loggias from the fourteenth century onwards gave commerce a distinctive urban setting, combining shops and covered spaces with private residences.

What to notice

Casa Vanni's elaborate window has pointed, trilobed arches, foliage and small sculpted figures, together with the emblem of the compagnia di Santa Bona. Palazzo Poschi adds a fifteenth-century brick facade and mullioned windows. The Madonna dei Vetturini tabernacle, attributed to Nino Pisano, connects religious imagery with the street's working history.

Context and history

The name borgo recalls the quarter's origins beyond an earlier circuit of walls. During the Medici period, urban renewal replaced wooden arcade supports with more durable materials. Later damage and rebuilding also changed the quarter: the clearance following Second World War bombing created Largo Ciro Menotti. The surviving arcades retain the relationship between medieval building forms and the street's social and commercial identity.