Torre Guelfa

Torre Guelfa once stood watch over the Terzanaia, the medieval shipyard on the Arno where Pisa's navy was built and launched, its name a deliberate jab at a rival Ghibelline tower that has since vanished entirely. Raised in the early fifteenth century under Florentine rule, it watched galleys head out to war and trade for generations before 1944 brought much of the riverfront down. Inside, carved stone crests still mark the Florentine officials who once ran the shipyard below.