Pienza is an Italian town of 2 076 inhabitants in the province of Siena in Tuscany. Located in Val d'Orcia, it is not far from the Cassia state road and from the other two important centers of the valley, San Quirico d'Orcia and Castiglione d'Orcia. The historic center was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996.
Much of the significant historical-artistic heritage of Pienza is
concentrated in the suggestive square dedicated to Pope Pius II, a
personality who gave so much to the town, trying to make it his "ideal
city" of the Renaissance. His projects, entrusted to Bernardo
Rossellino, were only partially completed, but still remain one of the
most significant examples of rational urban planning of the Italian
Renaissance.
The Renaissance Cathedral is immediately isolated
and clearly visible; in front, the Town Hall and next to it Palazzo
Borgia and Palazzo Piccolomini.
The Hermitage is a complex of
rooms dug into the sandstone by hermit monks and is located near Pienza.
In a cave there is a sculpture of a Madonna with six fingers, linked to
a miracle of Saint John Damascene, testifying to the monks'
relationships with Eastern Christianity.
Pienza Cathedral
Church of San Francesco
Monastery of Sant'Anna
in Camprena
Church of San Bernardino in Castelluccio di Pienza
Parish Church of Saints Leonardo and Christopher in Monticchiello
Parish Church of Santa Maria dello Spino in Monticchiello
Chapel of
San Regolo (Palazzo Massaini)
Church of Mercy
Church of San
Giovanni
Church of Santa Caterina
Parish Church of Saints Vito and
Modesto in Corsignano
Hermitage
Abbey of San Pietro in Campo
Parish Church of Santa Maria in Cosona
Chapel of Cosona castle
Church of San Niccolò in Spedaletto
Borghetto Chapel
Palazzone
Chapel
Piccolomini Palace
Town Hall
Palazzo Borgia, home of the
Diocesan Museum
San Carlo Conservatory
Gonzaga Simonelli Palace
Pincelli Palace
Villa Benocci
Villa Fregoli
Villa del Borghetto
Massaini Palace
Walls of Pienza
Spedaletto Castle
Cosona Castle
Castelluccio
Bifolchi
Palazzone Tower
Tarugi Tower
Lucciola Bella nature reserve
Checche Oak
By plane
The closest airports to Pienza are:
Florence: "Amerigo
Vespucci" Airport
Perugia: "Sant'Egidio" Airport
Pisa: "Galileo
Galilei" Airport
Rome: "Leonardo da Vinci" Airport
By car
A1 Autostrada del Sole: exit at Chiusi/Chianciano Terme, take the SS 146
for Chianciano Terme, Montepulciano, Pienza.
On the train
Chiusi - Chianciano Terme railway station, on the Rome - Florence line.
An excellent olive oil is produced in its territory; Pienza is part
of the national association of oil cities.
1 Porta della Cavina
(Palazzo Ammannati), Corso il Rossellino 53, ☎ +39 0578749906,
info@botteghe-aperte.com. Mon-Sun 10am-1.30pm, 2.30pm-7pm. Room
perfumery, gift items, clothing accessories, bags.
2 Bottega Verde,
Corso Rossellino 36, ☎ +39 0578748345.
Modest prices
1 From Fiorella, Via Condotti 11, ☎ +39 0578749095,
dafiorella@libero.it.
Average prices
2 La Buca di Enea, Via
della Buca 10, ☎ +39 0578 748653.
Average prices
1 Relais Il Chiostro di Pienza, Corso Il Rossellino
26, ☎ +39 0578748129, fax: +39 0578749107,
info@relaisilchiostrodipienza.com.
2 Hotel Residence San Gregorio,
Via della Madonnina 4, ☎ +39 0578748059, fax: +39 0578 748354,
info@sangregorioresidencehotel.it.
Combined hospitals of Valdichiana (Nottola Hospital), Via Provinciale 5, Nottola, ☎ +39 0578713111. The nearest hospital is located in the municipality of Montepulciano in Nottola. Combined hospitals of Valdichiana.
Seismic classification: zone 3 (low seismicity), PCM
3274 Ordinance of 20/03/2003
Climate classification: zone E, 2113
GR / G
Atmospheric diffusivity: high, Ibimet CNR 2002
The climate of Val d'Orcia and Pienza has moderate continental characteristics, more accentuated in the valleys due to the frequent phenomenon of thermal inversion. Summers are hot and
dry, while winters are moderately cold. Precipitation, rather
irregular, is contained thanks to the location of the windward area
with respect to Monte Amiata which blocks or attenuates the humid
south-western winds.
The table relating to the data of the
Pienza Meteorological Station shows the average values recorded in
Pienza and which can be considered reliable for most of the Val
d'Orcia.
The city until 1462 was nothing more than
a small village called Corsignano. The event that changed the
fortunes was the birth in 1405 of Enea Silvio Piccolomini who 53
years later became Pope Pius II. It was precisely a journey of the
pontiff to Mantua that led him to cross the place of his birth and
the degradation he found led him to decide to build a new ideal city
above the ancient village, entrusting the renovation project to the
architect Bernardo Rossellino: it lasted about four years and
brought to light a harmonious town with typically fifteenth-century
shapes. The premature death of Pope Pius II also closed the history
of the new city, which has undergone limited changes since then.
Due to the beauty of its Renaissance historic center, Pienza
became part of the UNESCO natural, artistic and cultural heritage in
1996, followed in 2004 by the same valley area in which it stands:
the Val d'Orcia.
In 2003, in the natural reserve of Lucciola Bella, the fossil remains of an Etruridelphis giulii (marine mammal similar to a dolphin) that lived in the area over 4.5 million years ago re-emerged, in a period in which the current badlands were the seabed of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The fossil has been considered by scholars of great scientific value, because it is the most complete find of the species existing in the world.
According to ISTAT data as of 31 December 2010, the resident foreign
population was 152 people. The most represented nationalities based on
their percentage of the total resident population were:
Romania 57
2.61%
Since 1960, the Palio del cacio al melto has taken place in the main square in the first week of September. A spindle is positioned in the center of the square, and from it concentric circles are drawn, with an increasingly larger radius and lower score. There are six teams; each team has six members and any reserves. The competitors roll a wheel of cheese on the paved floor of the square trying to get it as close as possible to the spindle. Each member has three shots available, the team that obtains the highest score wins the Palio designed by local artists.
The municipal territory of Pienza is made up, in addition to the capital, of the hamlet of Monticchiello, the only inhabited center with the status of a hamlet of the municipality. Other smaller towns are Camprena, Castelluccio, Cosona, Palazzo Massaini and Spedaletto.
As far as craftsmanship is concerned, terracotta and wrought iron workmanship is still active, widespread and renowned.
Particularly renowned in the food sector is Pecorino di Pienza aged in PAT certified barriques.
The main football team in the city is the Società Polisportiva Dilettantistica Pienza 1969 which plays in group D of Promozione Toscana. She was born in 1969.