After having enjoyed the view of the most important monuments, palaces and villas of Pisa from the top of the Leaning Tower... walk toward the Duomo, the cathedral entitled to Santa Maria Assunta (Saint Mary of the Assumption), and discover the so-called "fingerprints of the Devil".

What are they?

On one of the many marble blocks used to build the Duomo (the construction works began in 1063; the cathedral was consecrated in 1118, but the works came to an end only in the last 25 years of the 12th century) there are some marks, a series of brown holes of various dimensions that the Pisans call the "fingerprints of the Devil". According to a legend, the marks are the remains of the attempt of the Devil to interrupt the building of the cathedral.

Legend in the legend, it is impossible to count the small holes: the result is always different (no wonder, then, if you see groups of tourists of all ages with pencil and paper in front of the "fingerprints").

Projected by the architects Buschetto and Rainaldo, the Cathedral is 100 metres long and 72 metres wide; the dome reaches a maximum height of almost 52 metres. Its profile stands therefore clearly out among the houses and the villas of this corner of Pisa.

The Cathedral houses a marble pulpit made by Giovanni Pisano between 1302 and 1311. The pulpit is considered the most important example of Gothic sculpture in Italy.

Next to the Duomo is the Baptistery (for more information read the following page of this tourist guide).