Historic Cities · Italy
San Gimignano through the ages
San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Five Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of its tower houses, which, with its hilltop setting and encircling walls, form "an unforgettable skyline".
San Gimignano in 1300
City of Fine Towers
San Gimignano in 1300 stands at the height of its civic rivalry, its ridge crowded with tall stone tower-houses raised by competing families and ringed by stout medieval walls. The walk approaches across saffron fields and vineyards, enters through Porta San Giovanni, threads the main streets and market piazzas, and finishes on the western ramparts beneath the clustered skyline of towers.
Perched on a sandstone ridge and encircled by two great rings of wall, the town presents a jagged skyline of many narrow tower-houses in rough grey and warm ochre stone. Roofs of terracotta tile and timber eaves slope between towers, while streets fall steep and narrow to sunlit piazzas where brick and stone paving from the thirteenth century collects dust and market refuse. Below the walls, terraces of vineyards and saffron plots ripple the slopes.
The walk — 9 streets, squares and views
Saffron Fields and Vineyards → Porta San Giovanni → Via San Giovanni → Piazza della Cisterna → Piazza del Duomo Steps → Palazzo Comunale Forecourt → Tower-House Street → Via San Matteo → Western Walls and Rocca
Step inside — 5 interiors
Saffron Merchant's Storeroom · Cistern Chamber · Nave and Chapel of the Collegiata · Dante's Hall, Council Chamber · Upper Family Hall
Planned from the Wikipedia record: San Gimignano.
San Gimignano in 1900
San Gimignano Rediscovered
At the turn of the century San Gimignano is a poor hill town of farmers and vintners whose cluster of medieval towers has lately drawn painters and Baedeker travellers. This walk crosses the working market and main streets, passes beneath the southern gate where ox-carts arrive, climbs to the ruined Rocca and finishes on the western walls with a wide view of the towers and surrounding vineyards.
Perched on a sandstone ridge and ringed by three medieval walls, San Gimignano's skyline in 1900 is defined by fourteen surviving stone tower-houses, blunt battlements and the taller Torre Grossa rising above low ochre and grey palazzi. Roofs of red terracotta, rough-hewn ashlar and brick façades, narrow shaded lanes and small triangular piazze give the town a compact, vertical silhouette. Outside the walls the slopes are patchworked with vineyards and olive groves, and simple stone farmhouses and wine-presses speckle the hills.
The walk — 9 streets, squares and views
Road from Poggibonsi → Porta San Giovanni → Via San Giovanni → Piazza della Cisterna → Piazza Duomo → Piazza Agostino → Rocca di Montestaffoli → Vernaccia Presses on the Slopes → Panorama from the Walls
Step inside — 5 interiors
Slope Farmhouse Kitchen · Painter's Lodging Room · Collegiata Frescoed Nave · Sant'Agostino Nave · Vernaccia Wine Cellar
Planned from the Wikipedia record: San Gimignano.
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