Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

This guide to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Pisa starts with an inscription cast into the chest of a bronze griffin, an Andalusian workshop's blessing to whoever commissioned it around the eleventh century. It follows the animal from an Islamic metal-working tradition into Pisan hands during raids on Mahdia and the Balearic Islands, and up onto the cathedral roof itself, where sailors mounted their captured trophy above the apse. You'll hear how it kept watch there for centuries before a decision was made about its future. Look for the looping Arabic script still legible along its body.