Piazza del Campo in Siena, the Palazzo Comunale, the Tower of Mangia, the square’s Chapel

PIAZZA DEL CAMPO

During a sightseeing in it is impossible to not get to admire the historical Piazza del Campo. Piazza del Campo is the main square of the city of Siena. Unic for its peculiar and original shell shape, this square is renomated all over the world not only for its beauty and architectural integrity but also to be the place where twice a year the two Palios take place. In Piazza del Campo it is possible to admire:

The Palazzo Comunale, a building edified by the government of the Republic of between 1298 and 1310 as headquarter of the Government of Nine. Not the stone but the brick was used to build it, while the white elements are of marble. Every window is adorned by an ogive that contains it. Merlons are of flat-top type.

The Tower of Mangia, was the temporal "bell-tower" of Palazzo Comunale and it was so called for the nickname of "earnings-eater" given to his first warden Giovanni di Balduccio (or "di Duccio"), known for enjoying a lot the pleasures of food and for dissipating in this way his own incomes by. It is among the tallest italian ancient towers, getting to 102 mt (the only one taller is the tower Torrazzo in Cremona). It was built from 1325 to 1348. The four corners are precisely orriented in direction North-South and East-Ovest.

The Cappella di Piazza is the marble tabernacle that is under the Tower of Mangia. It is leading compared to the profile of Palazzo Comunale. It was built in 1352 in order to thank the Vergin Mary to have protected Siena against the pestilence of the 1348.