Turistic informations of Pienza

Up on a hill between Valdichiana and Valle dell'Orcia, in a beautiful panoramical view, Pienza is a rare example of rinascimental urban planning and stylistic unity, it is near to the realzation of the "ideal city", an important concept for the humanistic culture of 1400.

The history of Pienza is strictly connected to its founder: Pope Pio II, whose name was Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who was born there in 1405. His parents, members of a noble family from Siena, were banished by the odd political events in their countryside property. Piccolomini didn't want an ordinary city but an urban centre which was worthy and in contrast with the other city, Siena, that had unjustly banished him along with his family. He expected that famous architects and artists worked to a project in which were implicit the constructive and philosophical principles of an age full of changes: the italian Rinasciment. In three years, from 1459 to 1462, rose Pienza, astistic city, ideal city, utopic city.

The historical city centre: The centre of the city is the square, piazza Pio II, with a close quadrilateral in which are the facades of the main palaces, among them it seems to predominate the Cathedral. This, built by Rossellino, has a facade divided in three parts by arches surmounted by a big triangular tympanum, a triangular bell tower and the inside in gothic style with a nave and two side aisles with the same height with a singular vault and a poligonal apsis. It keeps a remarkable wood choir of 1462, a masterpiece of Vecchietta. By cathedral's side is Palazzo Piccolomini, masterpiece of Rossellino, who took ispiration from Palazzo Ruccellai at Florence.

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• Città di Pienza
• Comune di Pienza