Location: Province of Siena, Tuscany Map
When: avoid summer months and weekends due to high tourist influx
Eat: Ristorante Dorando (www.ristorantedorando.it)
San Gimignano is a medieval hill town in Province of Siena, Tuscany province of Italy. The city preserved its fourteen towers that line the landscape of the town. The best time to visit San Gimignano is late spring to yearly summer and early autumn. The temperature in San Gimignano is not as hot as it is in summer months and there is very few tourists who come here.
The municipal territory of San Gimignano extends for 138 km² and is located on a high hill in the Val d'Elsa. The height difference is between a minimum of 64 meters above sea level. in the plain of the Elsa river near Certaldo to a maximum of 631 meters in the Cornocchio area; the capital is located at 324 m a.s.l.
The origins
San Gimignano stands on a place
inhabited by the Etruscans, at least from the third century BC The
hill was chosen for strategic reasons, being dominant (324 m a.s.l.)
over the high Val d'Elsa.
On the slopes of Poggio del Comune
(624 m a.s.l.) there are the ruins of Castelvecchio, a village from
the Lombard period.
The first mention dates back to 929.
In the Middle Ages the city was on one of the routes of the Via
Francigena, which Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, traveled
between 990 and 994 and which for him represented the 19th stage
(Mansio) of his return itinerary from Rome to England. . Sigeric
named it Sce Gemiane, also indicating the village as a point of
intersection with the road between Pisa and Siena.
According
to tradition, the name derives from the holy bishop of Modena, who
defended the village from the occupation of Attila.
The first
city wall dates back to 998 and included the hill of Montestaffoli,
where there was already a fortress seat of the market owned by the
bishop of Volterra, and the poggio della Torre with the bishop's
castle.
The thirteenth century
Towards 1150, despite the
opening of a new route of the Francigena, San Gimignano continued to
be an emerging center, with a policy of territorial expansion and a
significant growth in commercial activities. It was in this period
that two "villages" were formed outside the walls: that of San
Matteo, towards Pisa, and that of San Giovanni, towards Siena, both
along a new "main road", which were incorporated into the walls with
the new route completed in 1214.
In 1199, at the height of
its economic splendor, the town gained its municipal independence
from the bishops of Volterra. There was no lack of infighting
between Guelphs and Ghibellines (respectively led by the diehards
Ardinghelli and Salvucci), but the period of greatest economic
splendor dates back to the 13th century, under the Ghibellines,
which was based on the trade of valuable local agricultural
products, including the most sought after was saffron, sold in Italy
(Pisa, Lucca, Genoa) and abroad (France and the Netherlands, up to
Syria and Egypt [7]). Moreover, like other Tuscan centers, financial
speculation and usury spread. The solid economy allowed the creation
of an urban aristocratic class, which expressed its political and
social supremacy in the construction of the towers: in the
fourteenth century there were 72 towers (today perhaps 14 remain).
The huge accumulated capital was invested during the thirteenth
century in important public works, which gave the town the
articulation of urban spaces still visible today.
In 1251 the
walls incorporated Montestaffoli, but a few years later, in 1255,
the city was taken by the Guelphs of Florence who ordered the
destruction of the walls. Having regained independence in 1261 and
the Ghibelline supremacy returned after the battle of Montaperti,
the San Gimignano people rebuilt the walls including also the Poggio
della Torre. Since then the town conformation was divided into four
districts, each corresponding to a main door: that of Piazza,
Castello, San Matteo and San Giovanni.
The religious orders,
supported by the municipality, settled in the city from the middle
of the 13th century: the Franciscans outside Porta San Giovanni
(1247), the Augustinians at the Porta San Matteo (1280), the
Dominicans in Montestaffoli (1335) and the Benedictines of San
Girolamo at the San Jacopo gate (1337).
From 8 May 1300 the
Municipality had the honor of hosting Dante Alighieri as ambassador
of the Guelph League in Tuscany.
The decline, the Medici and
contemporary times
The fourteenth century was a century of crisis
that did not spare San Gimignano: troubled by internal struggles, it
was heavily hit by the black plague and famine of 1348, which
decimated the population. In 1351 the exhausted city spontaneously
surrendered to Florence, giving up its autonomy and a political role
in the Tuscan chessboard. The Rocca di Montestaffoli dates back to
that year, while in 1358 the walls were reinforced.
Despite the economic and political decline, the 14th and 15th
centuries were important from an artistic point of view, thanks to
the presence in the city of numerous Sienese or more often
Florentine masters, called above all by religious orders to
embellish their possessions. They worked in San Gimignano Memmo di
Filippuccio, Lippo and Federico Memmi, Taddeo di Bartolo, Benozzo
Gozzoli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sebastiano Mainardi (native of San
Gimignano), Piero del Pollaiolo, etc.
The decline and the
marginalization of the city in the following centuries were the
conditions that allowed the extraordinary crystallization of its
medieval aspect.
At the plebiscite of 1860 for the annexation
of Tuscany to Sardinia, the "yes" did not obtain, albeit briefly,
the majority of those entitled (1122 out of a total of 2275), a
symptom of the opposition to the annexation [8].
At the end
of the nineteenth century the uniqueness and beauty of the town
began to be rediscovered, which was fully subjected to monumental
restrictions in 1929. In 1990 it was declared a cultural heritage of
humanity by UNESCO.
During the Second World War, the country
was bombed by the Americans for ten days; on the Torre Grossa the
bell was destroyed (a new one was donated after the war by the
people of the Soviet Union); a house in the square and a piece of
the cathedral collapsed; the bombing began on Thursday, market day;
this caused some deaths; a young mother was struck in the foot by a
splinter, and had her leg amputated. After about ten days that the
San Gimignano people spent in the shelters, the priest managed to
convince the Americans that there were no more than ten Germans in
the town, and that they could attack the city without running any
risks.
San
Gimignano is above all famous for the medieval towers that still
stand out on its panorama, which have earned it the nickname of
Manhattan of the Middle Ages. Of the 72 towers and tower-houses,
existing in the golden age of the Municipality, twenty-five remained
in 1580 and today fourteen remain, with other scapitozzati visible
in the urban fabric. The oldest is the Rognosa tower, which was
built at the beginning of the 13th century. The highest is the Torre
del Podestà, also known as Torre Grossa, of 54 meters. A regulation
of 1255 prohibited private individuals from erecting towers higher
than the Rognosa tower (which at the time was the highest), even if
the two most important families, Ardinghelli and Salvucci, had two
slightly lower towers of almost equal size built, to demonstrate
their power.
Bell tower of the Collegiate Church of San
Gimignano
Torri degli Ardinghelli
Torre dei Becci
Campatelli Tower
Chigi Tower
Tower of the Cugnanesi
Devil's
Tower
Torre Ficherelli or Ficarelli
Torre Grossa
Tower of
Palazzo Pellari
Tower house Pesciolini
Torre Pettini
Torre
Rognosa
Towers of the Salvucci
In some texts the number of
towers is reduced from 16 to 14: in general the bell tower of the
Collegiate and the Casa-Torre Pesciolini are removed from the count,
which have different characteristics from the others.
Collegiate Church: also commonly known as
the Duomo, completed in 1148 is considered one of the most
prestigious examples of Tuscan Romanesque. Built on three naves, the
walls are entirely frescoed. Among the valuable fresco works: San
Sebastiano by Benozzo Gozzoli and the Stories of Santa Fina by
Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Chapel of Santa Fina; among those of the
Sienese school: Bartolo di Fredi's Old and New Testament and Taddeo
di Bartolo's workshop of Memmi and Last Judgment. The sculptures by
Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano and the wooden Annunciation by
Jacopo della Quercia are noteworthy.
Church of Sant'Agostino:
this church also contains numerous frescoes, in particular the
Chapel of Santo Bartolo by Benedetto da Maiano, the Stories of the
life of Sant'Agostino by Benozzo Gozzoli, and other remains of
frescoes, tables and canvases by different authors ( Benozzo
Gozzoli, Piero del Pollaiolo, Pier Francesco Fiorentino, Vincenzo
Tamagni, Sebastiano Mainardi).
Parish church of Santa Maria
Assunta in Cellole
Shrine of Mary Most Holy Mother of Divine
Providence
Quercecchio Church and former Oratory of San
Francesco, it houses the Ornithological Museum
Church of the
former Conservatory of Santa Chiara
Church of the Madonna dei
Lumi
Church of San Bartolo
Church of San Francesco
Church
of San Jacopo al Tempio
Church of San Lorenzo al Ponte
Church
of San Pietro
Church of San Girolamo
Convent of Monte Oliveto
Loggia of the Baptistery (Oratory of San Giovanni)
Hospital of
Santa Fina
Abbey of the Holy Sepulcher and Santa Maria a Elmi
Salvestrini House
Medieval sources:
they run along the external road of Porta delle Fonti, access to the
second wall of San Gimignano. Their construction dates back to the
fourteenth century, when they were placed to cover a Lombard stone
source of the ninth century. in ancient times these were the public
springs in the area, where water was collected and clothes were
washed.
Loggia of the Municipality
Town Hall or Palazzo Nuovo
del Podestà: it once housed the podestà, currently houses the civic
museum and the picture gallery, containing masterpieces by artists
such as Pinturicchio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippino Lippi, Domenico di
Michelino, Pier Francesco Fiorentino, etc. Furthermore, still inside
the Palazzo Comunale, it is possible to visit the Dante room with
the Majesty of Lippo Memmi and access the Torre Grossa, 54 m high
and dating back to 1311.
Palazzo Vecchio del Podestà: formerly
used for civil functions before the construction of the new palace,
it was later transformed into a prison and then (in the sixteenth
century) into a theater.
Baccinelli Palace
Cortesi Palace
Ficarelli Palace
Franzesi Ceccarelli Palace
Lucii Palace
Mangani Palace
Palazzo Pratellesi: one of the most interesting
noble palaces in the city, dates back to the fourteenth century and
preserves a valuable sixteenth-century fresco by Vincenzo Tamagni
inside.
Palazzo Razzi
Talei Franzesi Palace
Tamburini
Palace
Tinacci Palace
Tortoli or Tortoli-Treccani Palace
Useppi Palace
Vichi Palace
Spezieria di Santa Fina, with
material from the Spezieria dello Spedale di Santa Fina, which
reproduces the old pharmacy, with ceramic and glass containers and
medicines.
Military architectures
Walls of San Gimignano
Porta San Giovanni
Porta San Matteo
Porta San Jacopo
Gate
of the Sources
Bastion San Francesco
Fortress of Montestaffoli
Natural areas
Castelvecchio Nature Reserve
Archaeological areas
Cellole Necropolis
War Memorial
The stele is located in the gardens of piazzale Montemaggio, in
front of the San Giovanni gate.
The gravestones placed on the
four sides of the stele bear the following inscriptions.
East
side - San Gimignano to its fallen in war so that everyone always
remembers that peace makes peoples great
South side - Remembrance
of the fallen from the 1915-18 War
West side - Remembrance of the
fallen in the wars 1935-43
West side - Remembrance to the fallen
of the resistance 7-9-43 - 25-4-43