Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni
Comune
Comune di Monteriggioni
Panorama of Monteriggioni.
Coat of arms
Location of Monteriggioni
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	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	Angelo Fantucci
Area
• Total	99 km2 (38 sq mi)
Elevation	200 m (700 ft)
Population  (31 December 2010)
• Total	9,165
• Density	93/km2 (240/sq mi)
Demonym	Monteriggionesi
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
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, and is referenced in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, as well as a playable locale in Ubisoft's video game installments 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, built by the Sienese in 1214–19 as a front line in their wars against Florence, by assuming command of the Via Cassia running through the Val d'Elsa and Val Staggia to the west.

During the conflicts between Siena and Florence in the Middle Ages, the city was strategically placed as a defensive fortification. It also withstood many attacks from both the Florentines and the forces of the Bishop of Volterra. In 1554 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.

Main sights

Piazza Roma.

The roughly circular walls, totalling a length of about 570 metres (1,870 ft) and following the natural contours of the hill, were built between 1213 and 1219. There are 14 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 façade. Other houses, some in the Renaissance style (once owned by local nobles, gentry and wealthy merchants) face 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.

Other sights in the town's countryside include:

• Badia of Santi Salvatore e Cirino, at Abbadia Isola, a Romanesque abbey from the mid-12th century.
• Romanesque church of San Lorenzo a Colle Ciupi
• Romanesque Pieve of Santa Maria a Castello, known since as early as 971
• Romanesque-Gothic hermitage of San Leonardo al Lago
• Villa Santa Colomba

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.

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

In other media

The town plays a major role as the base of operations for Ezio Auditore da Firenze and his uncle Mario in the Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood video games and also appears as a playable siege map in Firefly Studios' 2001 computer game Stronghold.

External links

• Official site