PIENZA IN VAL D 'ORCIA

If you want to discover other treasures of the Val d'Orcia, we can extend the visit to Montalcino

to the Abbey of Sant'Antimo

or San Quirico d 'Orcia

Pienza - duration 2 hours

Pienza and San Quirico - duration 4 hours morning or afternoon

Pienza and surroundings full day - duration 5 hours

 

• Pope Pius II, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, was born in 1405. He commissioned the transformation of his native village to Florentine architect Rossellino.

• Politician and diplomat, he spoke uninterruptedly with the highest civil and religious authorities in Europe of the time, preferring however the philosophers, humanists and artists, of which he was an exceptional promoter.

• He imagined the ideal city , which will bear his name, Pienza, the city of Pio . While the architects discussed the golden proportion and the artists painted the geometric shapes of the ideal city, Enea Silvio built it in just over three years.

• Today Pienza boasts a series of buildings with happy successful chromatic and formal harmonies: the Duomo with the homogeneous series of large panels produced by the Sienese masters of the fifteenth century , Palazzo Piccolomini , the pope's residence, with the geometric hanging garden , built on a refined interpenetration of art and nature, the Palazzo Borgia that houses the Diocesan Museum.

• Did you know that the facade of the cathedral works like a sundial?

• Among the characters that populate the altarpieces, which is the portrait of Enea Silvio?