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SIENA
Piazza del Duomo
Passing the Branda Fountain, the most beautiful fountain in Siena, and entering the Via dei Pellegrini, which is shaded by the Palace of the Magnifico, we go up the stairway of the Sabatalli and enter Piazza del Duomo, crossing through the doorway made by Giovanni di Agostino. This, together with the nearby hill of Castelvecchio, is the original nucleus of the city. The ancient cathedral of Siena was here even before the 10th century.
It was destroyed to make room for the Duomo, which was begun at the beginning of the 13th century. In 1339, when the church was not yet finished, work began to create an exceptional project, the building of a new Duomo, the greatest church of Christianity, which was to have included as its transept the Duomo already under construction. However, the project proved to be superior to the force of the Sienese (also because of the outbreak of the Black Plague), so it was abandoned in 1355. Testimony to this great failed undertaking is the faÁade that faces Piazza Jacopo della Quercia, and part of the nave.
Work on the original Duomo was once again taken up, and was finished at the end of the 1300's. The splendid faÁade in white marble is divided into two levels. The lower one, built by Giovanni Pisano, includes three entranceways with Gothic tympani above. It is embellished by numerous statues. The upper level is the work of Giovanni di Cecco. It includes a splendid rose window and three cusps covered by mosaics (the central one culminating in an angel).
The Romanesque bell tower was erected at the end of the 13th century.
The interior with three naves, in the shape of a Latin cross, is striking due to its polychrome walls. The pavement is sub-divided into fifty-six squares, painted by artists such as Pinturicchio and Beccafumi. The glasswork of the apse, done in 1288, is one of the oldest in Italy. Among the numerous works of art contained here, the most notable is The Votive Madonna by Guido da Siena (over the altar), the wooden choral bench by Fra Giovanni da Verona (in the apse) and the marble bergamot by Nicola Pisano in (in the left transept). Then there are the works of Pinturicchio, Donatello, and Neroccio in the Chapel of San Giovanni Battista, and the Piccolomini Library in the first span of the nave on the left, which is a collection of the library of Pius II.
The Cathedral Museum, to the left of the Duomo, contains works already belonging to the Duomo. The most important room of the building is the Duccio Room, so called for the Maest‡, created by Duccio di Buoninsegna, a work with two facades that were separated in 1771. Next to this we can see The Nativity of the Virgin by Pietro Lorenzetti. Also of note is the Treasury Room of the Cathedral and the room containing The Madonna with Big Eyes, where we find works by Lorenzetti, Sano di Pietro and Sassetta.
The hospital of Santa Maria della Scala and the Archbishop's Palace are in the same piazza. The hospital, dating to the end of the 1200's, takes its name from the stairway of the Duomo. The Archaeological Museum is located here. The Archbishop's Palace, a Gothic structure from the 1300's, is to the right of the Duomo.
The baptistery of S. Giovanni
Situated in the adjacent Piazza S. Giovanni, this baptistery, built in the 1300's, presents a Gothic faÁade in white marble, unfinished on the bottom. Within its three naves is the splendid baptismal font by Jacopo della Guercia, begun in 1417 and decorated with statues by Donatello and de Torino.
Church of S. Agostino
Continuing along Piazza dei Mantellini and Via Sarrocchi, we arrive at the Church of S. Agostino. It was built in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 1700's according to the plans of Vanvitelli. Within are frescoes by Lorenzetti, Martini and Signorelli.
Palazzo Buonsignori
We conclude our itinerary by following the via S. Pietro to Buonsignori Palace. This Gothic palace from the 1400's houses The National Gallery. Here one can view the collection of Sienese artists from the 12th to the 17th centuries and works by Buoninsegna, Simone Martini and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
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