History
Generously speaking, history is incarnated in Siena, making it one of the places in which one can see the reflection of long-ago centuries, but perceptible in the present day through the voices and images of this city, ever capable of blending tradition with modernity.
Etruscan Siena or Roman Siena?
The origins of this city are, in good measure, still waiting to be uncovered. Its name might derive from a similar Etruscan name, Sanae, and in the area of the present-day hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, there are the remains of an Etruscan burial place. However, the earliest documents which mention Siena date back to the 1st century A.D., and refer to it by the name Sena Julia, a Roman colony established in former Etruscan territory. Subsequent documentation dates to the Longobard period when Siena was the seat of the Gastaldo. It was the Franks to take the place of the Gastaldi and the Frankish bishop assumed greater political importance.

The Republic of Siena
Along with commercial development along Via Fancigena, which already in the Longobard period was the principal north-south line of communication of the peninsula, Siena began its own expansion which brought about the development of new centers built on two facing hills. The one called Castelvecchio is the site of a Roman foundation. During the 12th century, the representatives of the manufacturing class, i Consoli, gained major political importance, and in the 13th century, the Republic of Siena was created, with its complex institutional system. From the very beginning, however, the aristocracy, having strong ties to episcopal and imperial powers, opposed the merchant class and then the banking-financial class, both of which had experienced great development and had amassed great wealth. Also the ties to Rome were strong and also fraught with conflict, even when there was a Sienese pope, as in the case of Alessandro III (1110-1181), a man of the local noble family Bianchi-Bandinelli, who successfully opposed the Suavian, Emperor Federico I Barbarossa.
In the 13th century, Siena experienced incredible demographic growth, reaching 48,000 inhabitants around the end of the century, and continuing to grow to the point of crisis reached in the following century. It was during the era of Ghibelline government that Siena was victorious in the Battle of Montaperti (4 September 1260).

The Battle of Montaperti
In the Battle of Montaperti, the armies of the Guelphs (Florentine) and of the Ghibellines (Siena) confronted one another in one of the bloodiest battles caused by centuries of rivalry over commerce and territory between these two powerful Tuscan cities.
Notwithstanding the superior numbers of the Florentine Guelph forces (the Guelph army was comprised of 3,000 on horseback and 30,000 infantrymen, whereas the Ghibelline army had only 1,600 on horseback and 18,000 infantrymen), the Sienese managed a smashing victory after eleven hours of uninterrupted battle. The losses of the Florentine Guelph army were estimated as 10,000 dead and 15,000 taken as prisoners, while the Sienese Ghibelline army lost only 600 men with 400 injured.
Among the reasons for the Sienese victory, beyond the fact of superior strategy and camp position, it seems the decisive factor was the famous betrayal of Bocca degli Abati (condemned by Dante, precisely for his betrayal, in the deep ring of hell, the Antenora, in which political traitors lay completely immersed in ice, as the poet described in Canto XXXII of Inferno).

The Government of Nine
The victory of Montaperti was followed by a defeat that the Sienese suffered in 1269 at Colle Val d'Elsa, a consequence of the Guelph's assent to power in the Republic and the institution of the Government of Nine, which ruled Siena until 1353. It was the Government of Nine who reorganized the city in the way we see it today, giving Piazza del Campo its present look and erecting Palazzo Pubblico. It was under the Government of Nine that the aqueduct project was completed and which, to this day, criss-cross the bowels of the city. It was during this period that Siena attained splendor, also thanks to its great painters and to the Cistercian monks of San Galgano who functioned as the administrators of public offices and often as city architects. But this was also a period of great crisis, from the famine of the 1330s all the way up to the bubonic plague of 1348, which reached its peak in Siena killing almost 80% of the inhabitants. And it was during the period of the plague that the greatest project of the city, the construction of the Duomo, was interrupted and consequently never completed.

The Great Plague of 1348
Before the plague of 1348, Siena had experienced rapid growth, so much so that the authorities had enlarged the walls to accommodate a doubling of the city's population, calculated to be more than 50,000. The plague erupted unexpectedly and spread so quickly that there was not time to dig graves for each of the dead. Instead, they were dumped in mass graves and barely covered over with earth.
Behind Palazzo Pubblico, the neighborhood inhabited by the poor was swept away by the epidemic. It was precisely the overcrowded conditions of the city at the time that provoked the wide-scale destruction, as recorded in the chronicles of the era and by the testimony of those who, like Ambrogio Lorenzetti, hastily prepared a Last Will and Testament, sensing the end, and, the end came to the painter and to all his family.

From the Instability of the Late 1300s to the End of the Republic

From 1348 to 1555, the Republic of Siena enjoyed two centuries of wealth and political events, and the city was populated by many important figures. But there were also periods of crisis which culminated with the War of Siena. It was the years of Saint Catherine (1347-1380) and of Saint Bernardino (2380-1444) which represented the religious response to the crisis of the period. It was a period of wars which placed Siena in constant opposition to Florence. Before Florence, in 1371, a worker's revolt exploded in Siena, the Ciompi del Bruco lead by Barbicane, and the group managed to exercise influence over the government of the Republic for a long period of time, creating the "People's Mount." In 1399, the city yielded to Giangaleazzo Visconti, precisely because of his anti-Florentine bent, but also in an attempt to put an end to the continual conflicts among the factions of the city. The economic situation, which up to the beginning of the 1300s had been healthy and thriving, was now in a state of constant crisis, with manufacturing reduced to a purely local level, and with banking in the hands of distant powers, those of the Buonsignori, bankers of the Pope, those of the Tolomei bankers of the King of France, or those of the Medici family of Florence. However, in the 1400s, the Republic continued to reinforce its presence in the territory of southern Tuscany, displaying its symbol, la Balzana and la Lupa, the areas of Maremma, Amiata, Val di Chiana, and Val d'Orcia.
Even Siena had its own "The Magnificent." It was Pandolfo Petrucci, who, until 1512, was "moderator" of the Republic, and the only dictatorial instance in the history of Siena. His palace, located in Via dei Pellegrini, is still called "The Magnificent." At Petrucci's death, the city found itself once again in the hands of the oligarchy, which failed to salvage the city's independence. Already in 1527, the Spanish had made inroads into Siena. Following shortly on the heels of the fleeing Spanish, in 1554, the Empire and the Florentine forces of Cosimo I of the Medici launched the final attack, due also to the fact that Siena remained the last Italian stronghold tied to France.

The War of Siena
The slow decline of the Republic of Siena, poisoned by internal conflicts, and by a loss of commercial competitiveness, reached it epilogue in 1555, the year in which, after the dramatic and tragic War of Siena, the city surrendered following a year and a half of seige on the part of the Spanish troops of Carlo V and his Florentine allies. The Emperor, the most powerful man in the world at the time and without doubt one of the most powerful men in all of history, felt the need to vindicate himself of the offenses to which he had been subjected. He therefore send into Italy a siege force which he augmented with the Florentine troops. The Florentines ordered that anyone caught bringing supplies to the city under siege was to be massacred, and the thing to be remembered from this war is one of the final acts of heroism on the part of the Sienese people, who did not surrender without a good fight. Hanging on heroically to their pride and their love of liberty, they retreated to Montalcino and there created "The Republic of Siena Retreated to Montalcino," with the intent to regroup their forces and reorganize resistance. The exiles, sending a plea for help throughout all the territorial possessions of the Republic. In an extraordinary show of loyalty, all the fortresses, the cities and villages of the Sienese state remained close to Siena, during the darkest moment of Sienese history, evidence of how "il Buongoverno" (the Good Government of Siena) shared a sense of community, even under conditions of conquest. In actuality, Siena had always been a strongly decentralized government, not at all oppressive; therefore, it is easy to comprehend how a city like Grosseto (and others) which, during the course of history, had previously rebelled against Sienese dominance, was now ready to defend Siena voluntarily. The reality was that everyone feared becoming the periphery of a great empire that spanned two continents. Once the war ended, Carlo V abdicated, and his successor, Filippo II, having no interest in the Sienese territory, sold it to the city of the Medici, Florence.

Siena in the Last Five Centuries
The long span of time, during which the city has remained in the shadows, and remembered only by foreign intellectuals in their travel diaries, has been a period in which life and the city's aspects have mellowed into what we now recognize as Siena of today. Le Contrade (the city districts) and the Palio (the historical horse race) comprise a phenomenon that came into being as a consequence of the Florentine conquest. The bank of Monte dei Paschi, third largest in all of Italy, was and remains a fundamental part of the economy of the city. The Gothic spirit of the city is also a consequence of the the city's acknowledgment of its past. Today the city numbers 53,000 inhabitants. 22,000 students attend the University of Siena, which was founded in 1240 and which has been consistently sustained by city government. Five million visitors come each year in search of the history of the Land of Siena.

THE PALIO...
The Palio is a complex exhibition organized by the Commune of Siena. It takes place two times a year, July 2, the Palio of Provenzano, and August 16, the Palio of the Assumption. Siena is divided into seventeen contrade (city districts), and ten contrade participate in each horse race, the seven which did not compete the previous year plus three others chosen by lot. In each district, one horse is selected from ten considered physically fit. The selection process, which takes place three days prior to the race, is called la Tratta, and it is the first event of a festival that lasts four days.

The culminating race, known as la Carriera (the Full Speed Run), is preceded by six practice races which take place three mornings and three evenings of the four days, during which the jockeys, selected by the contrades, get used to the horses. The last of the evening practice races is called the Prova Generale (the General Try-Out), while the final practice race, which takes place the morning of the Palio, is called the Provaccia (the Down-and-Dirty Try-Out).
The race consists of three laps around Piazza del Campo, on a surface of ground volcanic stone, known as tufa, spread over the race track which follows the seashell contour of the Piazza. The starting point for the race is called la Mossa, and it is comprised of two mooring ropes. The horses of nine of the ten contrades queue up between the ropes in an order established by lot. When the tenth horse, known as la rincorsa (the runner-up) queues up with the other nine, the forward rope is dropped and the race begins.
The winning contrada is the one whose horse, with or without its jockey, arrives first at the finish line after completing three laps. The prize is the Palio, or Drappellone, a ceremonial banner, created new each year by an artist chosen by the city, a coveted prize that the winning contrada will preserve forever in its museum.

...AND THE CONTRADE
There are 17 contrade. and they have existed since 1739, when the Governor of Siena, Violante of Baveria, established their boundaries, giving them official recognition for the first time. The contrade boundaries extend only within the perimeter of the city walls and their names are rooted in Medieval tradition. The rivalry between contrade has existed for centuries, and similarly alliances have developed over time. The Goose and the Tower have always been enemies, as is the case between The Tortoise and the Snail, the Wolf and the Porcupine, the Panther and the Eagle, the Seashell and the Valley of the Ram, the Owl and the Unicorn. The Tower has a second enemy, the Wave. The Caterpillar and the Giraffe have recently resolved their differences. The Forest and Dragon have traditionally been without enemies.
Each contrada has a physical structure and groups of contradaioli (district enthusiasts). Participation is on a level of deep and genuine sense of community, and entry into the community is obtained only through a Baptism Contradaiolo, each one conducted only during the day of the official patron saint and only with the water drawn from the contrada.

ITINERIES AND MONUMENTS

For centuries, Siena has been divided into thirds. Our overview of the city will begin with a general description of them.

The Third of the City
City Districts: Tortoise, Snail, Panther, Eagle, Forest, Wave

The Third of Camollia
City Districts: Porcupine, Dragon, Wolf, Giraffe, Caterpillar, and Goose

The Third of San Martino
City Districts: Tower, Valley of the Ram, Unicorn, Seashell, Owl
    

The Cathedral

The cathedral of Siena embodies fundamental elements of Italian genius in its architecture, paintings and sculpture. Few other churches in the world are in possession of the number of masterpieces contained in this cathedral, and no other church floor has a floor of such impressive beauty.
The first document to mention the cathedral is connected to a consecration performed by Pope Lucius III in 1178. The cathedral stands on a preexisting sacred building, which, in turn, was erected on the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Minerva. Construction of the cathedral began in the middle of the 12th century. Essential components were completed by 1215, and the dome was erected between 1259 and 1264.
Its form is a Latin cross with three naves. It was clad in bands of black and white marble, a reference to la balzana, the black-and-white fetlock emblem of the heraldic crest of Siena. Between 1284 and 1296, the smaller part of the façade was constructed (its execution attributed most probably to Giovanni Pisano). In 1317, work began on lengthening the nave toward the far end of the "Flat Valley".
The church, although ample, did not fulfill all the needs of the Comune; furthermore, there was strong desire on the part of the Sienese to compete with the nearby Florentines who, in those years, were constructing the immensely massive structure of Santa Maria del Fiore. Thus was conceived the ambitious project to erect a colossal temple, the largest cathedral in all of Europe.

In 1339, under the direction of Lando di Pietro, construction began on the so-called "New Cathedral". Very quickly, however, the sad economic conditions in which the city found itself after the Plague of 1348, the political situation, and, above all, certain grave statistical errors obliged the Sienese to abandon the project; the work was interrupted and the older construction project was completed. (The grandiose and precious advances of the "grand facade" are represent what would have been the Great Cathedral.) In the years after 1376, Giovanni di Cecco worked on completing the upper façade, inspired by the Cathedral of Orvieto. Siena's cathedral has a splendid façade, in polychromatic marble, rich with decorative scupture. The lower part is Romanesque-Gothic, open to three large doors (the work of Giovanni Pisano). The upper part is Gothic-Floral (the work of Giovanni di Cecco) and bears 1800s mosaics in the three cuspids.
The bell tower is Romanesque, in black and white stripes, and rises on an ancient tower, presenting six orders of windows, crowned by a octagonal pyramid cuspid and by lateral pinnacles.
Inside the cathedral, the polychromatic marble picks up the external motif. The ambient is rich with shadow and a mysterious play of light.
The vaults, painted blue with golden stars, were raised in the 14th century, such that the external gallery of the dome appears partially internalized. The arches and vaults of the main nave are crowned by a band of 172 plaster busts from the 16th century, representing the "Early Popes", among which are found the busts of 36 emperors.     
The marble entire floor was decorated with historical scenes between 1369 and 1547. There are 56 depictions offering a vision of the theme of salvation, the work of 40 artists, almost all Sienese. (For purposes of conservation, only a small part of the floor, corresponding to the dome and presbytery, is on view at any one time.)
Near the first pilasters there are two holy water fonts sculpted by Antonio Federighi in 1462-63. At the base of the dome,the plan is a hexagon, higher up, dodecagon. It is decorated with gilded statues, in plaster, of the saints placed in niches at the dome's base. The asymmetrical spherical vault, painted at the end of the 15th century, is depicts 42 figures of patriarchs and prophets. In 1532, Baldassare Petruzzi realized the complex marble structure of the main altar. The bronze tabernacle is the work of Vecchietta (1467-1472). The enormous polychromatic work of the apse is the work of Duccio di Buonisegna. To the left is the pulpit by Nicola e Giovanni Pisano (1266-68), a masterpiece of Gothic sculpture, and in the same nave opens the chapel of Saint John the Baptist, his figure sculpted in 1457 by Donatello, and following is the monumental entranceway to the Piccolomini Library, founded in 1495 by Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini (later Pope Pius III) to conserve the library of his uncle, Pope Pius II. The Piccolomini family altar, commissioned by Andrea Bregno at the beginning of the 1500s contains four sculptures by Michelangelo. In the left nave, there is the chapel of the Madonna del Voto, otherwise known as the Chigi Chapel, commissioned by the Sienese Pope Alessandro VII according to a design by Bernini in 1661.
The facade is a masterpiece of the 13th century and is the work, primarily, of Giovanni Pisano.

The Bapistry

With its marble facade that looks toward the center of Siena, this church, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, was constructed in 1316 by the best Sienese architects, students of Giovanni Pisano. The interior is rich with artistic treasures, beginning the the baptismal font, for which the best artists of the era were engaged: Jacopo della Quercia, Lorenzo Ghilberti and Donatello, who have left here one of their best works in the bronze panel of "The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist". On the walls and on the surfaces of the Gothic vaults, the frescoes of Vecchietta, of Agostino di Marsiglio, of the Sienese Benvenuto di Giovanni, along with those of dell'Orioli, represent a treasure of Rinaissance art in Siena.

The Crypt of the Cathedral

It has been one of the most important archaeological discoveries of recent years. In fact, after a casual discovery, an archaeological dig brought to light a space, "the confession", which was a lesser part of the cathedral prior to the great work of expansion of the apse in the beginning of the 1300s. In this ambiance of incommensurable fascination, you can see frescoes dating between 1275 and 1280, attributed to Dietisalvi di Speme, and others, which constitute the first Sienese school of painting. The stories represented are from the Old and New Testaments, but the most beautiful illustrate on the same wall the Crucifixion. The crypt has been open to the public for only three years.

Piazza del Campo

There is no other place that better captures all that is Siena. The Palio, which takes place here: the Palazzo Pubblico, symbol of common liberty and of civic unity; the Gaia Fountain, terminus of the aqueduct that the Sienese built in the 14th century and which still functions today; the nine points of the piazza's shell form, which represent the number of the priors of the government that built Siena into one of the most prosperous cities of Europe. It is an amphitheater surrounded by palaces and towers under which visitors can sit in cafes and restaurants, except during the days of the Palio in July and August.

The Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia
The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena (also called Palazzo Comunale) is considered a perfect example of civil Gothic architecture. In the past it was the residence of the signoria and of the podesta, and therefore seat of the city government.
It is the most important building, and the entire Piazza del Campo seems to tend toward it, as if by the force of gravity.
Up to the year 1270, the seat of the Government of the Twenty-Four (the governing body of the city) was located in the curia of the Church of San Pellegrino. It was in the second half of the 1200s that the decision was made to construct the palace. At first, various locations were adapted to house the Customs. Between 1293 and 1297, under the Government of Nine, plans were projected and put under way for a new, larger building. (Requirements were that this new building be able to house the governing body which, assuming the responsibilities of office, necessitated that no one ever leave the palace, except on festival days.)
In the first half of the 1300s, the salon of the Grand Counsel was finished, and two lateral bodies were added. The central body of the façade is three stories high, the wings two stories, the second of which, constructed only in 1680, maintains the original style and balances the bulk of the surrounding buildings.     
In the lower part of the palace, constructed in stone, is a succession of characteristic Sienese arches (a squat arch surmounted by an ogive); above, in brick, with tri-mullioned windows. The great copper disk with the monogram of Christ was added in 1425 and commemorates the fact that San Bernardino preached in the piazza.
The Palazzo Pubblico is the current seat of the administrative offices of the city. The first floor houses the Civic Museum, open to the public, a collection of works of extraoridinary artistic value.
On the left side of the Palazzo Pubblico, rises the Torre del Mangia, which can be defined as a miracle of architectural lightness and elegance. The name derives from it first bell-ringer, Giovanni di Duccio, nicknamed Mangiaguadagni ("earnings-eater"), who was employed in 1347 to sound the hours.

In 1325, a solemn procession accompanied the placing of the cornerstone of the tower. The construction began in 1338 and ended in 1348, work of Muccio and Francesco Di Rinaldo, both of Perugia.
The tower is completely made of brick with a crown and belfry in stone, possibly a design of Lippo Memmi. There are 400 steps leading up to the top of the tower, 88 meters high, and from there it is possible to enjoy a splendid panorama.

Santa Maria della Scala
One of the oldest European hospitals, for some years now, it has no longer functioned in its proper role as health facility. Instead, it has been the object of an important operation of reclamation of cultural and museum features. This great complex, situated in the heart of Siena, in front of the cathedral, conserves an incredibly integral treasure of a thousand years of history, recreating a journey that, from the Etruscan era to the Roman, from the Medieval period to the Renaissance, reaches all the way, uninterrupted, to the present.
A unique synthesis that blends the images of Etruscan civilization, tired religious pilgrims, wayfarers and the sick, noblemen, Byzantine emperors, abandoned infants and the unwed, expectant mothers. Alternating with these suggestive traces are monumental spaces, narrow corridors, unexpected and colorful frescoes with stories of daily life, obscure crypts, intricate webs of passageways carved through the tufo, immense areas with brick vaulted ceilings.
There is no single, unambiguous approach to viewing the precious and rare treasures that the great artists have left in Santa Maria della Scala. More than anything else, the building, 350,000,000 cubic meters, is a synthesis of the city and its history. The particularity consists precisely in this: it is a vessel where architecture, works of art, and history recount a life that has continued, without interruption, for a thousand years.

The Church of Sant'Agostino
Originally from the 12th century A.D., the structure has undergone numerous modifications in the course of the centuries. Destroyed by a fire in 1747, it was remade by Vanvitelli, including a garden, in front of the monument, from which one can enjoy a beautiful view of the city and countryside. Closed to the public in 1982 and subsequently used as an exhibition space, it conserves in its ample interior of a single nave The Crucifixion by Perugino in the Piccolomini Chapel, The Majesty by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and, in the Altar of the Epiphany, one of the masterpieces by Sodoma.

The Church of San Domenico
Large part of the mystic life of Saint Catherine took place inside the walls of this stupendous basilica. One of the first churches dedicated to the founding saint of the Dominican order, work was initiated in 1226 on the hills of Caporegio, donated to the order by the Malavolti family. A great deal of the actual plan, a rectangular nave and roof supported by exposed architraves in the Cistercian Gothic style, can be attributed to this period. Inside the church is conserved a magnificent Majesty by Guido di Siena (maestro of Duccio di Buonisegna), dating from 1221. Beginning in 1300, work continued for many years on the steep slopes of Fontebranda to construct foundation and erect the walls of what was called the "New Church" (crypt and transept). When Saint Catherine began to frequent San Domenico, they were already a great way through the work. In the crypt were buried the remains of the her father. Six chapels were built in the transept, constituting the two wings extending from the apse. After the canonization of Saint Catherine in 1462, the basilica acquired her most precious manuscripts and many relics.

The most distinguished reliquary, la Sacra Testa, was brought from Rome to Siena by Beato Raimondo da Capua in 1383. It was first placed in a bust of copper and then encased in a bust of silver. In 1711, to render it more visible, it was placed in a lantern-shaped urn, the work of Giovanni Piamontini (recently restored), and therein it remained until 1947, when the Domenicans decided to place it in its current silver urn, which is in the form of a miniature Gothic chapel. It took nearly two centuries to complete all the work on the basilica which was dedicated to Saint Catherine. Even on the very high lily flower of the bell tower there is a statue of Saint Catherine. Over the centuries, the basilica has suffered various damage. In 1798, an earthquake devastated the building, which was promptly restructured. Then the building was neglected (and poorly restructured). Finally, in 1940, a thorough restoration was begun, which entailed radical clean-up, and work was completed in 1962. It was in the Chapel of the Vault where Saint Catherine had various mystical experiences, and today contains her original portrait, painted by Andrea Vanni. Today the basilica has become an important spiritual center and religious pilgrims, welcomed by the Domenican priests, can pray before the reliquary of Saint Catherine.

The Church of San Francesco
The first Franciscan settlements in Siena date back to the beginning of the 1200s. The church, however, was constructed in Gothic style between the 14th and 15th centuries, probably according to a design by Francesco di Giorgio. In 1655, the church was destroyed by fire. It was subsequently restored by Giuseppe Partini between 1885 and 1892. The façade was reconstructed between 1894 and 1913 by Vittorio Mariani and Gaetano Ceccarelli, while the elegant bell tower was constructed in 1765 by Paolo Posi. The interior is very large, restored in 1892 to its original Gothic forms, consistent with the simple Franciscan style of the 14th century. It is in the form of an Egyptian cross. There is a single nave with chapels in the transept. It has a trussed roof and the walls are characterized by black and white bands, all of which is illuminated by large bi-mullioned windows and, in the apse, four-holed windows.
There are, along the longitudinal walls, extraordinary frescoes of the Sienese School of the early 1400s. At the extreme right end of the transept, there is a statue of San Francesco dating to the 14th century. The interior facade bears two frescoes by Sodoma and by Sassetta.

In the second chapel to the right of the chorus is the tomb of Cristoforo Felici, the work of which was carried out by Urbano da Cortona in 1462. In the first chapel, there is the Madonna with Child, a faux polyptych, probably by Andrea Vanni.
In the first chapel to the left of the presbytery is a frescoe by Pietro Lorenzetti, The Crucifixion, from 1331. The second chapel to the left contains two other masterpieces, frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti representing San Ludovico di Angiò before Bonifacio VIII and the martyrdom of six Franciscans at Ceuta. Across the way is the Chapel of the Sacrament, a graffiti design by Marrina (1502). The left door is the entranceway to a large and harmonious Renaissance cloister, in which are collected various fragments of sculpture, among them the monumental doors of the Petroni Chapel (1336), attributed to Domenico D'Agostino. The right door leads to the Seminary. Inside the chapel on the top floor, there are two works worth note: the renowned painting Madonna del latte, a masterpiece by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and a faux polyptych frescoe by Lippo Vanni.
The Department of Economy and the Library of the Jurisprudence Association occupy the convent of San Francesco, to the right side of the church and in the cloister.

The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi
The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi, dating back to the end of the 1200s, was enlarged in the following century. Subsequently, it was radically transformed between 1471 and 1528, , according to a Renaissance design of a central nave and two side aisles.
In addition to the simple façade, where the signs of these changes emerge, there is a mighty and beautiful bell tower dating back to the 1200s, all of it fully restored in 1926. In the suggestive and majestic interior, in the form of a Latin cross, in the second altar of the right side aisle, is the beautiful panel called Madonna del Bordone which was painted by the Florentine Coppo di Marcovaldo in 1261, when he was prisoner of the Sienese, following the Battle of Montaperti. This painting was retouched in the 1300s by a student of Duccio da Buonisegna.
In the second chapel of the left side of the transcept, on the walls are frescoes from the 1300s by Pietro Lorenzetti. In the chapel at the far end of the left side of the transcept is the beautiful image of Madonna del Manto, painted by Giovanni di Paolo in 1436.

Church of San Niccolò
Built in a very ancient era, it's present look is due to Peruzzi, who reworked it in the 16th century. There are many works of art preserved in San Niccolò al Carmine. On the right wall, there is the frescoe by Arcangelo Salimbeni with The Adoration of the Shepherds. Adjacent, on the first altar, there is a fragment of the frescoe by Gualtieri di Giovanni which depicts The Assumption of Mary. On the second altar, there is the extraordinary painting by Domenico Beccafiumi (1486-1555) with a depiction of Saint Michael.

The Museum of the Cathedral
One of the richest and most fascinating museums of Tuscany, it preserves works of art of the cathedral, above all, the masterpieces of Duccio di Bonisegna. The Majesty, painted by a maestro at the beginning of the 1200s, is one of the high points of all Medieval art. The impressive dimensions and intrinsic complexity of the beauty of this enormous painting make it a true must for anyone visiting Siena. The museums contains a collection of jewels and gold objects. From the museum, visitors can climb narrow steps to the top of the cathedral and enjoy one the the most beautiful panoramas of Italy, atop what remains of the shattered dream of the prideful Republic of Siena: the construction of the largest Gothic cathedral of the era.

The National Painting Museum
Palazzo Buonsignori, a residence from the 1400s, contains one of Italy's richest collections of paintings. Its primary focus is the great Sienese School of painting from the 1300s: Duccio di Buoninsegna, with the small Madonna of the Franciscans and one of his polyptychs; Simone Martini, with a stupendous Madonna and Child; and a painting by Beato Agostino Novello. There are the great works of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti: first of all, a beautiful Madonna and Child Enthroned with a kneeler made for the Carmelites; and secondly, The Allegory of the Resurrection and The Annunciation. The initial rooms are dedicated to the painters of the 1200s, such as Giudo and Rinaldo of Siena. Paintings of the late 1300s include two landscapes, considered to be the first representations of only countryside, variously attributed. (They are now believed to have been painted in the early 1400s, but the theory still asserts a strong connection back to Ambrogio.) The museums contains the most important collection of Sienese Renaissance painting of the 1400s and 1500s. The major masterpieces from this period include the work by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, The Coronation of the Madonna; the works by G. Antonio Bazzi (known as Sodomia), Christ at the Pillar and The Deposition; the work by Domenico Beccafiumi, The Birth of the Virgin and The Stigmata of Saint Catherine, but above all, Saint Michael Chases Away the Rebel Angels, refused by the Carmelites because of its excessive nudity. The collection hosts many masterpieces by painters of the 1600s, such as, work by Bernardino Mei as well as works by Duerer and Lotto.     

The Oratory of San Bernardino
The Oratory of the Company of San Bernadino of Siena is a sacred place of devotion only a few steps from the cathedral, and it contains the new Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art.
The brick facade is adorned with a great doorway of travertine dating back to 1574, and high up there is a radiant disk with the trigram of San Bernadino. The order, formerly named The Order of Mary and Saint Francis (1273), then The Order of the Madonna of the Black Vestments of Saint Francis (14th century), took the name of San Bernardino (1450) after the canonization of the Sienese holy man. The Diocesan Museum contains an array of equestrian paintings between the 14th and 17th centuries. Certain frescoes, from the Church of San Francesco, are the works of Pietro Lorenzetti and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the latter also responsible for the painting Madonna del Latte. In the 15th century, Vecchietta painted a panel of The Piety of Christ, completed by a group of polychromatic panels, also by Vecchietta. The altar panels of the oratory date between the 15th and 16th century, as well as small picture gallery named "the Attic". Also from the same period: Christ Carrying the Cross by Domenico Beccafiumi, several small paintings by Sodoma, and works by Ventura Salimbeni, Alessandro Casolani, Ritulio Manetti and Bernadrino Mei.
The room of the Upper Oratory has a coffered ceiling decorated with the heads of cherubs; the walls are decorated with frescoes depicting Stories of the Virgin by Pacchia, by Sodoma, and by Beccafiumi.

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