San Gimignano: The Perspective of Piazza della Cisterna

Second for tourists only to the two colossuses of Siena and Florence, S.
Gimignano, a town built on an ancient Etruscan hill, reached the peak of its splendour between the ninth and the eleventh centuries: the main road, in fact, was Via Romea which connected Rome to the transalpine provinces and which crossed Via Pisana in the Elsa Valley. The primitive nucleus lay between the two reference points nearest to the crossroads, the hill of the Tower (where
the bishop’s castle was to be later built) and Montestaffoli, the future centre of secular power.

There were as many as nine lodgings for the merchants who came to the town every day and, as regards the local population, every family of a certain importance attempted to demonstrate its prestige by building a tower next to its house: there were as many as 72 of these slender constructions but most of them no longer exist. From the architectural and urban point of view, S. Gimignano offers extremely particular perspective scenarios, such as the two adjoining squares, Cisterna and Duomo (or Collegiate), right in the middle of the town.

Both have an irregular shape and are bounded by imposing stone buildings strengthened with towers: the latter (15 survivors) preserve the brick herring bone flooring that was characteristic of the Middle Ages. While the Collegiate Square has a trapezoidal shape and is the centre of political and religious life, the Cisterna Square, with its well built in the middle in 1273 (then extended in 1346) to collect rain water, was once the location for markets and fêtes. The octagonal well makes an elegant contrast to the triangular shape of the square which is “sculpted” by the homes of the ancient families of the town (such as the
Ardinghelli), the tower of the Becci and Palazzo Cortesi.


(Portions of this article first appeared in "Toscana & Chianti News")
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