In 1996,UNESCO declared the town aWorld Heritage Site, and in 2004 the entire valley, theVal d'Orcia, was included on the list of UNESCO's World Cultural Landscapes.
Before the village was renamedPienza its name wasCorsignano. It is first mentioned in documents from the 9th century. Around 1300 parts of the village became property of thePiccolomini family[4] after Enghelberto d'Ugo Piccolomini had received the fief of Montertari inVal d'Orcia from the emperorFrederick II in 1220.[5] In the 13th centuryFranciscans settled down in Corsignano.[4]
In 1405 Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Italian:Enea Silvio Piccolomini) was born in Corsignano, aRenaissance humanist born into an exiled Sienese family, who later becamePope Pius II. Once he became Pope, Piccolomini had the entire village rebuilt as an idealRenaissance town and renamed itPienza ("city of Pius").[6] Intended as a retreat fromRome, it represents the first application of humanisturban planning concepts, creating an impetus for planning that was adopted in other Italian towns and cities and eventually spread to other European centers.
The rebuilding was done by Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli (known asBernardo Rossellino) who may have worked with the humanist and architectLeon Battista Alberti, although there are no documents to prove it for sure. Alberti was in the employ of thePapal Curia at the time and served as an advisor to Pius. Construction started about 1459. Pope Pius II consecrated the Duomo on 29 August 1462, during his long summer visit. He included a detailed description of the structures in hisCommentaries, written during the last two years of his life.
In 2023, Pienza faced a significant controversy when its centuries-old clock tower bells were silenced at night due to tourist complaints about noise from those staying in nearby hotels. The decision stirred debate among residents, with some expressing nostalgia for the nightly tolls that had been a part of their lives for generations.[7]
The trapezoidal piazza is defined by four buildings. The principal residence,Palazzo Piccolomini, is on the west side. It has three stories, articulated by pilasters and entablature courses, with a twin-lightedcross window set within each bay. This structure is similar to Alberti'sPalazzo Rucellai in Florence and other later palaces. Noteworthy is the internal court of the palazzo. The back of the palace, to the south, is defined byloggia on all three floors that overlook an enclosedItalian Renaissance garden withGiardino all'italiana era modifications, and views into the distant landscape of theVal d'Orcia and Pope Pius's belovedMonte Amiata beyond. Below this garden is a vaulted stable that had stalls for 100 horses.[8]
TheDuomo (Cathedral), which dominates the center of the piazza, has a facade that is one of the earliest designed in theRenaissance manner. Although the tripartite division is conventional, the use of pilasters and of columns, standing on highdados and linked byarches, was novel for the time. Thebell tower, however, has a Germanic flavor as is the layout of theHallenkirche plan, a "triple-nave" plan where the side aisles are almost as tall as the nave; Pius, before he became pope, served many years inGermany and praised the effects of light admitted into the German hall churches in hisCommentari.[9] Works of art in the duomo include five altar paintings from theSienese School, bySano di Pietro,Matteo di Giovanni,Vecchietta andGiovanni di Paolo. The Baptistry, dedicated as usual toSan Giovanni, is located next to the apse of the church.
Pius encouraged cardinals to buildpalazzi to complete the city.Palazzo Vescovile, on the third side of the piazza, was built by Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, at the time Church Vice Chancellor and the future Pope Alexander VI, to comply with the request by Pope Pius II for the Cardinals to have a residence in the town. It became the residence of the Bishop of Pienza when the town was elevated to a bishopric in 1462. It is now home to the Diocesan Museum,[10] and the Museo della Cattedrale. The collection includes local textile work as well as religious artifacts. Paintings include a 12th-century painted crucifix from the Abbey of San Pietro in Vollore, 14th century works byPietro Lorenzetti (Madonna with Child) andBartolo di Fredi (Madonna della Misericordia). There are also important works from the 14th and 15th centuries, including a Madonna attributed toLuca Signorelli.
Across from the church is the town hall, orPalazzo Comunale. When Corsigniano was given the status of an official city, aPalazzo was required that would be in keeping with the "city's" new urban position, although it was certainly more for show than anything else. It has a three-arched loggia on the ground floor facing the Cathedral and above it is the council chamber. It also has a brick bell tower that is shorter than its counterpart at the cathedral, to symbolize the superior power of the church. The set-back addition to the tower dates from 1599. It is likely that Bernardo Rossellino designed thePalazzo Comunale to be a free standing civic mediator between the religious space before the cathedral and secular market square to its rear.
The travertine well in the Piazza carries the Piccolomini family crest, and was widely copied in Tuscany during the following century. The well-head resembles a fluted, shallow Etruscan Bowl. The flanking Corinthian support a classical entablature columns whose decorations are clearly based upon actual source materials.
Façade of the Cathedral of PienzaThe Piccolomini gardens and Val d'Orcia
Other buildings in Pienza dating from the era ofPius II include the Ammannati Palace, named for CardinalJacopo Piccolomini-Ammannati, a "curial row" of three palaces (the Palazzo Jouffroy or Atrebatense belonging to CardinalJean Jouffroy of Arras, the Palazzo Buonconti, belonging to Vatican Treasurer Giliforte dei Buonconti, and the Palazzo Lolli constructed by apostolic secretary and papal relative Gregorio Lolli) arranged along the street behind the Bishops Palace. along the main road there are also the Palazzo Gonzaga, built in 1463 by Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, Palazzo Forteguerri built in 1460 by Ambrogio Fortguerri, Apostolic Treasurer, and the Palazzo of Ambrogio Spannocchi, now Cittadini, again of the XV century. In the northeastern corner of Pienza, in via Casanuova, is a series of Twelve row houses constructed at the orders of the pope by the Sienese building contractor Pietro Paolo da Porrina.
About fifty meters west of the Cathedral Piazza is the church ofSan Francesco, with a gabled facade and Gothic portal. Among the buildings that survived from the old Corsignano, it is built on a pre-existing church that dated from the 8th century. The interior contains frescoes depicting the life ofSaint Francis, those on the walls having been painted byCristofano di Bindoccio andMeo di Pero, 14th-century artists of theSienese School.
The RomanesquePieve of Corsignano is located in the neighbourhood. The monastery ofSant'Anna in Camprena was founded in 1332-1334 byBernardo Tolomei as a hermitage for theBenedictines; it was remade in the late 15th-early 16th century, and several times in the following centuries. The refectory houses frescoes byil Sodoma (1502–1503).
Thefrazione ofMonticchiello is home to a characteristicRomitorio, a series of grottoes carved in the rock by hermit monks. In the same locality is thepieve ofSanti Leonardo e Cristoforo, rebuilt in the 13th century inGothic style. The interior has frescoes from a 14th-century Sienese painter, acyborium in the shape of a small Gothic portal and an alte 15th-century Crucifix. At San Pietro in Campo are the remains of the eponymous abbey.
Monticchiello is the subject of the documentarySpettacolo (2017).
Montepulciano is headed by amayor (sindaco) assisted by a legislative body, theconsiglio comunale, and an executive body, thegiunta comunale. Since 1995 the mayor and members of theconsiglio comunale are directly elected together by resident citizens, while from 1945 to 1995 the mayor was chosen by the legislative body. Thegiunta comunale is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, calledassessori. The offices of thecomune are housed in a building usually called themunicipio orpalazzo comunale.
Since 1995 the mayor of Pienza is directly elected by citizens, originally every four, then every five years. The current mayor is Manolo Garosi (aleft-wingindependent), elected on 26 May 2019 with the 59.6% of the votes and re-elected on 9 June 2024 with 59.3% of the votes.
^Haegen, Anne Mueller von der; Strasser, Ruth F. (2013). "Pienza".Art & Architecture: Tuscany. Potsdam: H.F.Ullmann Publishing. pp. 394–395.ISBN978-3-8480-0321-1.
^"As you enter the middle door, the entire church with its altars and chapels is visible and is remarkable for the clarity of the light and the brilliance of the whole edifice. There are three naves, as they are called. The middle one is wider. All are the same height. This was according to the directions of Pius, who had seen the plan among the Germans in Austria" Quoted in Henk W. van Os, "Painting in a House of Glass: The Altarpieces of Pienza"Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art17.1 (1987, pp. 23-38)
Adams, Nicholas (May 1985). "The Acquisition of Pienza, 1459-1464".Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.44 (2):99–110.
Adams, Nicholas (1989). "The Construction of Pienza (1459-1464) and the Consequences of Renovatio". In Zimmerman, Susan; Weissman, Ronald (eds.).Urban Life in the Renaissance. Newark: Univ. of Delaware Press. pp. 50–79.
Carli, Enzo (1966).Pienza: la Citta di Pio II. Rome: Editalia.
Cataldi, Giancarlo; Formichi, Fausto (2007).Pienza Forma Urbis. Florence: Aion Edizioni.
Mack, Charles (2012). "Beyond the Monumental:The Semiotics of Papal Authority in Renaissance Pienza".Southeastern College Art Conference Review.16 (2):124–50.
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