Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni
—  Comune  —
Comune di Monteriggioni
Panorama of Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni Location of Monteriggioni in Italy
Coordinates: 43°23′24.01″N 11°13′23.95″E
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	Province of Siena (SI)
Frazioni	Abbadia a Isola, Badesse, Basciano, Belverde, Castellina Scalo, Ceppo, Colonna di Monteriggioni, Fontebecci, Quercegrossa, Riciano, Santa Colomba, Scorgiano, Stomennano, Strove, Uopini
Government
• Mayor	Bruno Valentini (Democratic Party)
Area
• Total	99 km2 (38.2 sq mi)
Elevation	200 m (656 ft)
Population (31 December 2004)
• Total	8,168
• Density	82.5/km2 (213.7/sq mi)
Demonym	Monteriggionesi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	53035
Dialing code	0577
Patron saint	Maria S.ma Assunta
Saint day	15 August
Website	Official website

Monteriggioni is a comune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany. It borders on the communes of Casole d'Elsa, Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Poggibonsi, Siena and Sovicille. The town is architecturally and culturally significant; it hosts several piazzas, is referenced in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, and has appeared in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

History

City walls of Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni is a medieval walled town, located on a natural hillock, in the Siena Province of Tuscany - built by the Sienese in 1213 as a front line in their wars against Florence, by assuming command of the Cassia Road running through the Val d'Elsa and Val Staggia to the west. Monteriggioni, which sits in the center of the Comune of Monteriggioni (an approximate 19.49 km² area around the town), is located fifteen kilometers from the Province's capital.

During the conflicts between Siena and Florence in the Middle Ages (in which Florence was seeking to expand territory), the city was strategically placed as a defensive fortification. It also withstood many attacks from both the Fiorentini and forces controlled by the Bishop of Volterra. Eventually the Sienese were able to place control of the town's garrison to Giovannino Zeti, who had been exiled from Florence. In 1554, in an act of reconciliation with the Medicis, Zeti simply handed the keys of the town over to the Medicean forces - considered a "great betrayal" by the town's people.

Architecture

Piazza Roma

The money Monteriggioni made went to making the town better. Both Monteriggioni's exterior walls and the buildings within are some the best preserved in all of Italy, attracting tourists, architects, medieval historians and archaeologists. "The town appears to float above the valley at night due to the hillside walls and towers being lit from below with light" tourists say.

The roughly circular walls, totalling a length of about 570 meters and following the natural contours of the hill, were built between 1213 and 1219. There are fourteen towers on square bases set at equidistance, and two portals or gates. One gate, the Porta Fiorentina opens toward Florence to the north, and the other, the Porta Romana, faces Rome to the south. The main street within the walls connects the two gates in a roughly straight line.

The main piazza, the Piazza Roma, is dominated by a Romanesque church with a simple, plain facade. Other houses, some in the Renaissance style (once owned by local nobles, gentry and wealthy merchants) facing into the piazza. Off the main piazza smaller streets give way to public gardens fronted by the other houses and small businesses of the town. In more hostile times, these gardens provided vital sustenance when enemies gathered without.

Cultural significance

The Tuscan poet Dante Alighieri used the turrets of Monteriggioni to evoke the sight of the ring of giants encircling the Infernal abyss.

“	però che, come su la cerchia tonda Montereggion di torri si corona, così la proda che 'l pozzo circonda torreggiavan di mezza la persona li orribili giganti, cui minaccia Giove del cielo ancora quando tuona.	”
—Dante Alighieri, Inferno canto XXXI, lines 40-45

“ As with circling round Of turrets, Monteriggioni crowns his walls; E’en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss, Was turreted with giants, half their length Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from heaven Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls. ” —as translated by Henry Francis Cary during the years 1805–1844

Its modern claim to fame in the English-speaking world is mainly through Monteriggioni's featured appearance in Ubisoft's 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II, where the player is able to explore and interact with the town and its landmarks as of the 15th-century, and again in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood before it is besieged and razed in the first week of 1500 by Cesare Borgia's army (based on some disputed historical accounts); Brotherhood also features a fictional version of Monteriggioni as of 2012. It is also featured as a setting for the multiplayer mode. The city bears little resemblance to the city depicted in Assassin's Creed. It also appears as a playable siege map in Firefly Studios' 2001 computer game Stronghold.

External links

• Official site