Siena

Brief History of Siena

Siena Photos, Part 1

    Siena is by far my favorite "city" in Italy. The reason is simple. Its medieval core is pure Gothic with no traffic other that by foot. Siena was once a medieval power house, rivalling Venice, Pisa, and Florence. However, by the 1600's, Siena had become nothing more than a little hill town. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the Black Plague wiped out a sizable part of Siena's population. Then, sensing a time to strike, The fine middle class members of Florence salted the lands around Siena. As a result, while Florence and the other cities were experiencing the Renaissance, Siena was literally being pickled as a gothic style town (Steves, 1997).
     Though this was unfortunate for the people of Siena in the late 1400's it is very fortunate for people living now. For its a chance to step into a time machine and see a purely gothic style town. The town has outlawed cars in the downtown area, so you can walk around the streets admiring the gothic style buildings.
One thing to point out. The town of Siena was centered around its government, not its cathedral (which I think is more spectacular than the one in Florence). Therefore Palazzo Publico, the city hall is the focal point of the city instead of the Cathedral. In front of the city hall is El Campo, the marketplace. From the aerial shot you can see how it was segmented into different parts. Each part was for a different merchant class, as well as one for the government. Today the marketplace is lined with shops. San Domencio (Upper Right) may not look like much on the outside, but has some nice artwork on the inside.    Any comments, please E-mail me,
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All photos by John L. Polos July 1997
Copyright March 9, 1997

Duomo, Front View	Duomo
Duomo, Side View	Duomo & Siena, Aerial View
Palazzo Publico The City Hall	Another Church Siena
Church of San Domencio	Siena, Aerial View From La Campanili From here you can see the church in the picture above.

El Campo Aerial View	El Campo, Ground View
Arches	Back of a Church
Palazzo Publico	San Cristoforo