Duomo di Siena
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
The cathedral on the highest hill of the town, striped in white and dark green marble, with a floor of inlaid marble pictures.
Photo: sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Siena’s cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was built in the 13th century on the highest point of the town. Giovanni Pisano carved the lower half of its front from 1284, crowded with prophets and philosophers, and the bell tower and the walls inside are striped in white and dark green marble, the colours of the town’s shield.
Inside, Nicola Pisano carved the pulpit from 1265 to 1268, and Pinturicchio painted the Piccolomini Library with the life of Pope Pius II, of the Sienese family of the Piccolomini. The whole floor is a picture book of 56 marble panels, made over two centuries, which is uncovered for a few weeks every year. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Siena
Piazza del CampoThe shell-shaped square at the heart of Siena, paved in red brick and sloping down to the town hall, where the Palio is run.
Palazzo PubblicoSiena’s Gothic town hall of brick and stone at the foot of the Campo, with the most famous frescoes of good and bad government.
Torre del MangiaThe slender brick tower of the town hall, 88 metres tall, with the stone crown of its bell chamber over the Campo.
Fonte GaiaThe marble fountain at the top of the Campo, where the water of Siena’s underground aqueducts first reached the square.
FacciatoneThe bare front of the vast new cathedral that Siena began in 1339 and gave up after the Black Death.
Santa Maria della ScalaOne of the oldest hospitals of Europe, opposite the cathedral, which looked after pilgrims and foundlings for nearly a thousand years.
Loggia della MercanziaThe 15th-century loggia of the merchants’ court, at the crossing where Siena’s three main streets meet above the Campo.
Piazza SalimbeniThe small square of the palaces of the Monte dei Paschi, the oldest bank in the world still in business.
San DomenicoThe great brick church of the Dominicans on its own hill, where Saint Catherine of Siena prayed, and where her head is kept.
Fortezza MediceaThe fortress that Florence built after it took Siena in 1555, now a park on its walls above the town.
Palio di SienaThe wild horse race round the Campo, run twice every summer between the contrade, the neighbourhoods of the town.
PanforteSiena’s dense cake of honey, almonds, candied fruit and spices, baked here since the Middle Ages.