Description
The Siena Cathedral is the city's cathedral, dedicated to Saint Mary of the Assumption: a Romanesque-Gothic church banded in white and black marble, the colors of Siena's coat of arms, on the highest hill of the old town.
Its sculpted facade, inlaid floor and frescoed library make it one of the richest visits in Siena.
Outside, the facade tells its story in two acts. Below, between 1284 and 1297, Giovanni Pisano carved prophets, patriarchs, sibyls and pagan philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, each in their own way heralds of Christ.
Above, with the rose window, the golden mosaics and the three gables, Camaino di Crescentino took over. The statues are copies: the originals are in the museum next door.
Inside, your eyes are drawn upward, where above the arches a cornice carries 171 busts of popes, and 36 emperors below them.
But the masterpiece is on the ground: the floor, 56 panels of inlaid marble signed by more than forty artists, led by Beccafumi, who made 35 of the scenes. You can see all of it only at certain times of the year, from late June to late July and from late August to late October.
The octagonal pulpit by Nicola Pisano, with its columns resting on lions and its reliefs of the Nativity and the Last Judgment, is one of the most important sculptures of thirteenth-century Italy.
Along the left aisle stands the Piccolomini Altar, with four statues by the young Michelangelo, and right after it the Piccolomini Library: a hall with colors that still look fresh, frescoed by Pinturicchio with the life of Pope Pius II.
Above the choir, the big stained-glass window is a copy of the one designed by Duccio; the original is in the museum. A door on the steps of Piazza San Giovanni leads down to the crypt, rediscovered in 1999: a room with 180 square meters of thirteenth-century frescoes, sealed for centuries.
In 1339 the Sienese found the cathedral too small and decided to turn it into the transept of an enormous one. Then came the plague of 1348 and some collapses, and in 1357 everything stopped. What remains is the "Facciatone", a facade with no church, and the right nave, which today houses a museum.
Even the busts of the popes have a story. The series was meant to end with Alexander III, the Sienese pope who, according to tradition, consecrated the cathedral. But John VIII, mistaken for the legendary Pope Joan, was an embarrassment: they removed him, and all the others slid up one place.
Don't miss
• The floor.
• Nicola Pisano's pulpit.
• The Piccolomini Library.
• The Piccolomini Altar.
• The crypt.
Did you know?
• The Piccolomini Library never housed the books it was built for.
• Michelangelo left the altar unfinished: more important commissions, like the David, were waiting for him.
• After the August Palio, the winning contrada brings its banner to the cathedral to sing the Te Deum.
Its sculpted facade, inlaid floor and frescoed library make it one of the richest visits in Siena.
Outside, the facade tells its story in two acts. Below, between 1284 and 1297, Giovanni Pisano carved prophets, patriarchs, sibyls and pagan philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, each in their own way heralds of Christ.
Above, with the rose window, the golden mosaics and the three gables, Camaino di Crescentino took over. The statues are copies: the originals are in the museum next door.
Inside, your eyes are drawn upward, where above the arches a cornice carries 171 busts of popes, and 36 emperors below them.
But the masterpiece is on the ground: the floor, 56 panels of inlaid marble signed by more than forty artists, led by Beccafumi, who made 35 of the scenes. You can see all of it only at certain times of the year, from late June to late July and from late August to late October.
The octagonal pulpit by Nicola Pisano, with its columns resting on lions and its reliefs of the Nativity and the Last Judgment, is one of the most important sculptures of thirteenth-century Italy.
Along the left aisle stands the Piccolomini Altar, with four statues by the young Michelangelo, and right after it the Piccolomini Library: a hall with colors that still look fresh, frescoed by Pinturicchio with the life of Pope Pius II.
Above the choir, the big stained-glass window is a copy of the one designed by Duccio; the original is in the museum. A door on the steps of Piazza San Giovanni leads down to the crypt, rediscovered in 1999: a room with 180 square meters of thirteenth-century frescoes, sealed for centuries.
In 1339 the Sienese found the cathedral too small and decided to turn it into the transept of an enormous one. Then came the plague of 1348 and some collapses, and in 1357 everything stopped. What remains is the "Facciatone", a facade with no church, and the right nave, which today houses a museum.
Even the busts of the popes have a story. The series was meant to end with Alexander III, the Sienese pope who, according to tradition, consecrated the cathedral. But John VIII, mistaken for the legendary Pope Joan, was an embarrassment: they removed him, and all the others slid up one place.
Don't miss
• The floor.
• Nicola Pisano's pulpit.
• The Piccolomini Library.
• The Piccolomini Altar.
• The crypt.
Did you know?
• The Piccolomini Library never housed the books it was built for.
• Michelangelo left the altar unfinished: more important commissions, like the David, were waiting for him.
• After the August Palio, the winning contrada brings its banner to the cathedral to sing the Te Deum.