Piazza del Campo is in the center of Siena and Siena's premier square. The piazza is shell shaped, symbolically uniting the different levels formed by the conjunction of the three hills on which the city was founded.
Paved in red brick and marble, the site was built in the XIII century and is one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. It contains the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia.
The XV century Gaia fountain (Fountain of Joy) is a center of attraction for the many tourists. It replaced the original fountain with a statue of the goddess Venus. This pagan statue was blamed for an outbreak of the Black Plague. The statue was destroyed and buried outside the city walls to avert its "evil influence". The present fountain in the shape of a rectangular basin was designed and built in white marble by Jacopo della Quercia. It is adorned on three sides with many statues, with the Madonna in the middle, surrounded by the Virtues. The old statues were replaced by copies in the 1860's.
The bi-annual famous Palio is held in the square.

At the left-hand end of the Palazzo Púbblico is the Torre del Mangia, one of the most daringly conceived of medieval towers. The shaft is of brick, the battlemented platform with its supporting brackets and its superstructure of travertine. The tower has a total height of 102m/335ft to the tip of its metal bell-cage (with bells of 1666). It was built between 1338 and 1348 by two brothers, Minuccio and Francesco di Rinaldo; the project was regarded as so foolhardy that they were required to bear the whole risk themselves. From the platform of the tower there are magnificent views of the city and the surrounding country. At the foot of the tower is the Cappella di Piazza, built in 1352 in thanksgiving for the town's deliverance from the 1348 plague; it was considerably altered in 1463. Its Renaissance architecture, following ancient models, is in striking contrast to the restrained facade of the Palazzo Pubblico.

On the south side of the Piazza del Campo in Siena is the Palazzo Púbblico (Town Hall), an imposing Gothic building of travertine and brick (1288-1309). The top floors of the lower side wings were added in 1680. The construction of the palazzo involved much upfilling and extensive underbuilding. The facade is relieved by rows of elegant windows and cornices of round-headed arches and topped by battlements. The black and white escutcheon of Siena, the Balzana, is constantly repeated in the arches over the windows. At either end of the central block is a bell-cote, and under its battlemented top is a roundel with Christ's monogram (IHS), the distinctive attribute of San Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444), who preached in the Piazza del Campo. In the center of the first floor is the coat of arms of the Médici (who from 1569 were Grand Dukes of Tuscany). On the facade, and also on a column in front of it to the right, are a number of representations of the She-Wolf of the Capitol.
The interior of the Palazzo Púbblico is remarkably well preserved. It contains numerous frescoes of the Sienese school which provide an insight into the minds of the proud burgher families of 14th and 15th century Siena. Note particularly, in the Sala della Pace, the frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti depicting Good Government and Bad Government (with views of Siena), and, in the Sala del Mappamondo, a magnificent fresco by Simone Martini, "Maestà", and a picture of the Sienese General Guidoriccio Fogliani setting out for the Siege of Montemassi. Other frescoes in the Sala del Mappamondo depict the Sienese victory at Poggio Imperiale and various Saints. Adjoining this room is the chapel with its ante-chapel (which has frescoes by Taddeo di Bártolo). The chapel has stalls of about 1420 with intarsia decoration.

On the north side of the Piazza del Campo stands a copy of the marble fountain, the Fonte Gaia (1419), a masterpiece by Jacopo della Quercia, the original of which can be seen in the Museo Civico.

The Banchi di Sotto and the streets which continue in the same direction lead to the Church of Santa Maria degli Servi, at the southeast end of the old town. It was originally built in the 13th century but was altered in the 15th-16th centuries in the style of the period. The plain facade was left unfinished; the Romanesque campanile which flanks it has four orders of windows, increasing in number from level to level so as to enhance the effect of perspective. Within the aisled church, on the right, is the "Madonna del Bordone" (depicting the Virgin and Child with two Angels), by Coppo di Marcovaldo (1261). In the second chapel in the south transept is a famous fresco, the "Slaughter of the Innocents" by Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1330), and on the altar is Lippo Memmi's "Madonna del Popolo" (c. 1317).

A little way east of the Fonte Branda, in Via Santa Caterina, is the Sanctuary of St Catherine. St Catherine of Siena (1347-80), the daughter of a dyer named Benincasa, prevailed on Pope Gregory XI to return from Avignon to Rome in 1377. The best known of her visions was her "mystic marriage" to the Infant Christ, a favorite theme with painters. The fine Renaissance doorway has the Latin inscription "Sponsae Kristi Catherinae Domus" ("House of Catherine, Bride of Christ").

To the west of the Museo Archeológico in Siena, near the town walls, stands the Church of San Doménico, a severe brick building in Cistercian Gothic style. Originally built in 1226, it was subsequently much altered and enlarged; the battlemented campanile, in a style alien to Cistercian architecture, was erected in 1340. The church has an aisleless nave with an enclosed rectangular choir and a surprisingly high and spacious transept, from which the two chapels flanking the choir are entered. The effect of the interior is mainly due to its lack of decoration, which enhances the impression of space. In the northwest transverse wall of the nave is the entrance to a vaulted chapel with the earliest known likeness of St Catherine of Siena (1347-80), a fresco by Andrea Vanni (c. 1400).
The Cappella di Santa Caterina, built on to the right-hand wall of the nave, contains two masterpieces by Sodoma, "The Ecstasy of St Catherine" and "St Catherine Fainting" (both c. 1525), and a marble tabernacle by Giovanni di Stéfano (1446) with the head of the Saint, who died and was buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. On the high altar in the choir are a ciborium and two figures of Angels bearing candelabra (c. 1475) by Benedetto da Maiano. In the first side chapel on the right can be seen frescoes by Matteo di Giovanni, and in the second chapel on the left wall-paintings by Matteo di Giovanni and Benvenuto di Giovanni. From one of the windows in the apse there is a superb panoramic view of the city.

Below the apse of San Doménico is the Fonte Branda, a fountain which is mentioned in the records as early as 1081. The present form of the fountain-house with its three Gothic arches is mainly due to Giovanni di Stéfano.

To the northeast of Piazza Salimbeni stands the Gothic Church of San Francesco, a Franciscan foundation begun in 1326 but not completed until 1475. Like San Doménico, San Francesco shows the architectural style of the Mendicant Orders, with an aisleless nave and no apse at the east end. The campanile was added in 1765. The interior, with its open timber roof, is painted in alternate bands of black and white, imitating the marble facing of the cathedral. Along the walls hang the banners of the old craft guilds. In the left transept are a magnificent fresco of the Crucifixion (c. 1330) by Pietro Lorenzetti and frescoes of St Louis of Toulouse (1274-97) before Pope Boniface VIII and the Martyrdom of Franciscans at Ceuta by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1330).
The oratory of San Bernardino, adjoining the Church of San Francesco, was built in the 15th century on the spot where the Franciscan friar San Bernardino of Siena was accustomed to preach. On the upper floor are fine 16th century frescoes by Sodoma, Doménico Beccafumi and Girólamo del Pacchia ("St Louis", "Presentation of the Virgin", "St Antony of Padua", "St Francis of Assisi", "Visitation", "Assumption" and "Coronation of the Virgin" by Sodoma; "Marriage of the Virgin", "Madonna with Angels" and "Death of the Virgin" by Beccafumi; "Birth of the Virgin", "San Bernardino of Siena", "Gabriel" and "Annunciation" by Pacchia).

At the northeast corner of the Piazza del Campo, with its main front on the Banchi di Sotto, stands the Palazzo Piccolómini, built by Pietro Paolo Porrina in 1469 to the design of Bernardo Rossellino for Nenni Piccolómini, father of the future Pope Pius III. This handsome Renaissance building now houses the Archivio di Stato (National Archives), with historical documents, Government records, manuscripts, etc. Of particular interest are the tavolette di Biccherna, wooden panels painted by some of the most noted Sienese painters of the day as covers for the ledgers of the municipal treasury.

The cathedral (Santa Maria), one of the finest churches in Italy, stands on the highest point in the town, to the southwest of the Croce del Travaglio. It is not known when a church was first built on this site. The cathedral in its present form was begun in 1229; the dome was completed in 1264; and the choir was extended eastward over the baptistery about 1317. Then in 1339 the people of Siena resolved on a gigantic enlargement of the cathedral which would have made it the largest Gothic building in Italy. The existing church was to become the transept of a new church more than 100m/330ft long, the main axis of which would be turned through 90 degrees. Work on the project soon came to a halt, however, partly because the foundations were inadequate for the weight of the new building and partly because the population of the town was decimated by plague in 1348. Some idea of the vast scale of the project can be gained from those portions of the new nave which were completed. The façade of the original building was completed only in 1380. The rich sculptural decoration was largely renewed in 1869, and the mosaics were set in place in 1877. The campanile dates from the end of the 14th century.
The facade (by Giovanni Pisano, 1284-99) is one of the finest achievements of Italian Gothic, with a beautiful polychrome facing of white, green and red marble. Almost its whole width is taken up by three doorways of equal height surmounted by pediments, with a slender tower at each end. Above the central doorway is a rose-window. The facade is richly decorated with sculptured figures, almost all now replaced by copies. The mosaics in the pediments, with a gold ground, were done by Venetian artists in 1877-78. In the angle between the nave and the right-hand transept is the Romanesque campanile; its facing of horizontally banded dark- and light- colored marble gives it an astonishing lightness, an effect reinforced by the six orders of windows, increasing in number as they go up. In the lunette of the doorway at the foot of the tower is a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child (the Madonna del Perdono), attributed to Donatello (15th century). Over the crossing of the original church, on a hexagonal drum, is the dome, which was completed before the heightening of the nave, so that the drum appears to be set into the roof of the nave. Beyond the end of the right-hand transept are fragments of the new cathedral which was never completed: the five-bayed northeastern aisle (now occupied by the Cathedral Museum), the Facciatone (Giant Facade) and three bays of the southwest wall of the nave, which enclose the Piazza Iácopo della Quercia. Much of the left-hand wall of the old cathedral is concealed by the Piccolómini Library. On a column at the left-hand end of the steps leading up to the cathedral is the She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus (copy: original in Cathedral Museum).
The campanile originally stood outside the cathedral, in the angle between the nave and the right transept, but with the enlargement of the cathedral it is now within the main structure. On the wall above the doorway leading from the last bay of the right-hand aisle into the base of the campanile is the Monument of Bishop Tommaso Piccolómini del Testa by Neroccio (1484).
With its regular alternation of courses of black and white marble, the interior of the cathedral (89.40m/293ft long) has a rather overpowering effect, though this is relieved by the painting of the ceiling with gold stars on a blue ground. The nave is separated from the aisles by piers bearing tall round-headed arches. Above these runs a cornice with busts of Christ and 171 Popes (down to Lucius III), and in the spandrels of the arches are busts of 36 Roman Emperors (terracotta, 15th-16th centuries). At the point where the nave reaches the crossing can be seen part of the dwarf gallery which encircles the drum of the dome. The inner wall of the façade has reliefs depicting the life of the Virgin (1483) and the legend of Sant'Ansano (c. 1480); the stained glass (1549) in the rose-window depicts the Last Supper. There is also a stained-glass window in the choir.
The pavement of the Siena cathedral is a work of unique interest and beauty, with 56 panels depicting Sibyls, Biblical scenes, allegories, etc. Over the 200 years (from about 1370) which it took to complete the work the artists' techniques were steadily refined. At first they merely scratched out the design in the marble and then filled in the lines with asphalt, but later they increasingly tended to use different colored marbles in intarsia or mosaic techniques.
The white marble pulpit by Nicola Pisano and pupils (1256-68) is one of the finest works of art in the cathedral. Octagonal in shape, it is borne on nine columns of granite, porphyry and green marble. The outer columns stand alternately on the base and on figures of lions, the inner ones on allegories of the Seven Liberal Arts and Philosophy. Above the capitals are personifications of the Virtues. On the parapet of the pulpit are seven magnificently carved reliefs: the Nativity, the Adoration of the Kings, the Flight into Egypt, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment, with the Elect, and the Damned. The steps leading up to the pulpit were added in the 16th century.
In the right transept is the entrance to the Cappella Chigi (Chigi Chapel) or Cappella della Madonna del Voto (Chapel of the Madonna of the Vow), which was built in 1659-62 to the design of the great Baroque architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Of the four statues in the chapel two ("St Jerome" and "The Magdalene") are by Bernini; the other two ("San Bernardino" and "St Catherine of Siena") are by his pupils.
In the left-hand transept is the Cappella San Giovanni Battista (Chapel of St John the Baptist), with a beautiful doorway by Lorenzo di Mariano (1476-1534). In the chapel are a bronze statue of John the Baptist by Donatello (1457) and a statue of St Catherine of Alexandria by Neroccio (1487). The frescoes (scenes from the life of the Baptist and two portraits) are by Pinturicchio.
In the left-hand aisle of the cathedral in Siena is the entrance to the Piccolomini Library. The entrance wall (by Lorenzo di Mariano, 1497) is a fine example of High Renaissance decorative sculpture. A bronze grille gives access to the library, one of the finest and best-preserved creations of the Early Renaissance. Begun in 1495, it was built for Cardinal Francesco Piccolómini (later Pope Pius III) in honor of his kinsman Enea Silvio (Aeneas Sylvius) Piccolómini (Pope Pius II, 1458-64).
The colorful frescoes in the library were painted in 1502-08 by Pinturicchio and his pupils. They depict ten scenes (beginning from the right-hand window): Enea Silvio Piccolómini accompanies Cardinal Capranica to the Council of Basle (1432); he appears before King James I of Scotland as the Council's Envoy; the Emperor Frederick III crowns him as poeta laureatus; he submits to Pope Eugenius II; as Archbishop of Siena he presents Eleanor of Aragon to Frederick III; Pope Calixtus III creates him Cardinal; he is crowned Pope as Pius II; he seeks to unite the Christian princes against the Turks at Mantua; canonization of St Catherine of Siena; Pius arrives at Ancona to prepare for the campaign against the Turks. The ceiling of the library is also covered with frescoes by Pinturicchio - the Piccolómini coat of arms, surrounded by mythological figures which are separated by bands of ornament. Round the walls of the room are displayed richly illuminated 15th century musical manuscripts.
The presbytery is dominated by the large marble altar by Baldassare Peruzzi (1532), over which is a bronze ciborium by Vecchietta (1467-72), flanked by angels carrying candles. The apse has frescoes by various 16th and 17th century artists; on some of them 19th century restoration is very evident. The carved choir-stalls, in Late Gothic style, date from 1363 to 1397; of the original 90 stalls only 36 remain. Behind the stalls are richly decorative intarsia panels by Fra Giovanni da Verona (1503).
A door on the left-hand side of the presbytery leads into the sacristy. In three chapels at the far end are remains of 15th century frescoes. High up in the wall of the choir is a circular window with what is believed to be the oldest stained glass in Italy, depicting the Burial, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, with the Four Evangelists and Siena's four Patron Saints. The window, originally made in 1288, was moved to its present position in 1365.
The crypt is reached by going round the outside of the right transept and through the doorway in the first bay of the unfinished new cathedral. The entrance to the crypt is on the first landing of the staircase. In the first room are the originals of statues on the cathedral, now replaced by copies, and in the second are remains of late 13th century frescoes of New Testament scenes.

Unlike Florence or Pisa, Siena did not build a separate baptistry. The baptistry, is located underneath the eastern bays of the choir of the Duomo. Work began in 1327 and was completed about 1325. It is rectangular in shape, divided in three aisles. The frescoes on the vaults were painted by Lorenzo di Pietro (also called "Vecchietta") between 1447 and 1450. They represent the Articles of Faith, Prophets and Sibyls. Unfortunately, these valuable frescoes were repainted at the end of the 19th c. He also painted two scenes on the wall of the apse: Flagellation and Road to Calvary. Lichele di Matteo da Bologna painted in 1477 the frescoes on the vault of the apse.
The marvellous hexagonal baptismal font with bas-reliefs and gilded brass figures by Donatello, Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia and other 15th-century sculptors is the greatest art treasure in the baptistry. The panels represent the Life of John the Baptist.
-Annunciation to Zacharias by Jacopo della Quercia (1428-1429)
-Birth of John the Baptist by Giovanni di Turino (1427)
-Baptist preaching by Giovanni di Turino (1427)
-Baptism of Christ by Ghiberti (1427)
-Arrest of John the Baptist by Ghiberti and Giuliano di Ser Andrea
-Herod's Banquet by Donatello (1427)
These panels are flanked on the corners by six figures, two by Donatello (Faith and Hope) in 1429; three by Giovanni di Turino (Justice, Charity and Providence) in 1431; Fortitude is by Goro di Ser Neroccio in 1431.
The marble shrine on the font was designed by Jacopo della Quercia between 1427 and 1429. The five Prophets in the niches and the marble statuette of John the Baptist at the top are equally by his hand. Two of the bronze angels are by Donatello, three by Giovanni di Turino (the sixth is by an unknown artist).

On the first and second floors of the Palazzo Pubblico the Museo Civico houses drawings, paintings and other documents of the history of the town. On the third floor is a loggia in which the original sculpture from the Fonte Gaia has been assembled.
The paintings include important Renaissance pieces. In addition there are numerous examples of Renaissance and Baroque silver pieces.
Piazza del Campo
Phone:0577 292263
www.comune.siena.it/museocivico