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SIENA
Walking through the streets
of Siena also signifies and encounter with numerous civil
architecture: from the simple, medieval bourgeois houses,
which developed vertically in respect to the high class buildings:
Palazzo Piccolomini, Palazzo Chigi-Saracini, Palazzo Tolomei
and the famous Palazzo Salimbeni, historical seat of one of
the oldest Italian banks.
The other City fulcrum is represented by the Cathedral Square,
dominated by the huge and imposing, marmoreal church (the
square next to the church, occupies the area where there should
have been an immense central nave, from the new Cathedral
project). The Cathedral, after alternate and long historical/artistic
vicissitudes, saw its completion in 1382, and presents a Romanesque-Gothic
façade, projected by Giovanni Pisano; its interior
is enormous, characterized by bi-chromic marble and marmoreal,
in-laid flooring, which form true and proper “squares”
– 56 in total – which on the project, carries
the signature of great Tuscan artists. Internally, it is full
of works of art, but we’ll name just two: the Pulpit
by Nicola Pisano (1266/68) and the frescoes by Pinturicchio
in the Piccolomini Library (1502/9). Many of the works, which
can be found in the Cathedral, are now guarded by the Museum
of the Works of the Cathedral, and situated in that which
should have been the lateral nave of the new Cathedral: amongst
these, you can find the original statutes of Giovanni Pisano,
intended for the façade and the huge altar-piece by
Duccio da Buoninsegna, the “Maestà” (Majesty)
from 1308/11.
Under the Cathedral, obtained due to uneven land, we can find
the Baptistery, finalized around 1325: an architectural solution
without comparison.
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| SIENA
Art City
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CONTRADA LA TORRE |
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MANGIA TOWER |
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