Basilica of St. Clement in Santa Maria dei Servi

Piazza Manzoni. (Open Map)
(75)

Description

The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi, formally known as the Church of San Clemente, is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Siena, Tuscany, Italy. 
The church is built on the site of the former Church of San Clement, which was acquired by the Servite order in the Medieval era.   The original Basilica was built in the 13th century, but later underwent reconstruction and transformation which continued until the 15th-16th century.

The façade is simple and unadorned, with a single doorway and a rose window (indications of another can be discerned on the wall). It is in the Romanesque period style
The adjoining Campanile is likewise of the 13th century, richly embellished by four orders of windows. It was entirely restored in the 20th century.  The church building stands atop broad entrance stairs, with views over the Duomo and the Palazzo Publico of Siena.

The interior is in great contrast with the rough and bare aspect of the exterior. A renaissance style has been adopted, the design of which is attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. The church was enlarged in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, as seen in the interior of a Latin cross, where the Gothic style of the transept and apse joins the Renaissance style of the three aisles. The Renaissance style does not continue into the transept and apse, which are in the Gothic style. Near the entrance is a Crucifix of the 14th century and a Holy Water Stoup of the 13th century.