Siena

 Dear Gentle Readers

Today we visited the medieval town of Siena in Tuscany. It is a walled city dating back to 1100 A.D. It has never lost its medieval charm for reasons I will reveal shortly.


As we entered the city this is a typical street. Note the tall buildings, narrow lanes and the bricks. This one is wider than usual but you can see a much narrower one in the background. The reason the streets are so narrow? Easily defended and invaders cannot rush the defenders in large numbers but constricted by the size of the street.



This the rear of the Duomo di Siena, the main cathedral in the town. It's so big I could not fit it all in one picture.

Duomo = cathedral




This the side of the cathedral. Big isn't it?











And this is the front. We would have gone inside but the queue stretched around the building so we declined. But that's not all, there is one more part of the Duomo.















What's a cathedral without a bell tower? And how about a spectacular bell tower in black and white stone? Those colours are the colours of Siena and you will see them everywhere.

Note the openings in the tower from bottom to top, each opening has zero, one, two, three, four and five columns. This was to make the tower lighter as it got higher, less stone was used and the bells were at the top so there was more space for the sound to get out. Ingenious medieval builders.

So, you think this cathedral is big. Well, there was a plan to extend it and make this cathedral just the transept (the cross arm) of a much bigger church. Had it been constructed it would have been the largest cathedral in Christendom. Why wasn't it constructed? In 1348 the Black Death visited Siena and wiped out half the population. Labour dried up, money became scarce and the project was abandoned.



So you think this tower is big? Well think again. Here is the Torre del Mangia - an even taller tower attached to the Palazzo Pubblico, the Town Hall of Siena. It was built even higher so it was the same height as the Duomo's tower. These two towers dominate Siena.






This is the Piazza del Campo, the biggest square in Siena, with the Palazzo Pubblico at one side. I walked across it several times and it is huge!

Tomorrow we visit the Town of Towers, San Gimignano.





Comments

  1. cla88982June 7, 2026 at 7:56 AM

    What beautiful building. pity the line for the lovely church was so long it would have been stunning inside

    ReplyDelete

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