Description
Palazzo Piccolomini-delle Papesse is a Renaissance palace on Via di Città, the main street of central Siena, built in 1460 for a sister of Pope Pius II.
It has a travertine facade in the Florentine manner and a courtyard with carved capitals; it was Galileo's observatory in 1633 and for years was a contemporary art center.
It was commissioned by Caterina Piccolomini, sister of Pius II: hence the name "delle Papesse". The design is probably attributed to Bernardo Rossellino, the pope's favorite architect. Work ended around 1495, with the involvement of Antonio Federighi and Urbano da Cortona.
The facade is a convincing example of Florentine-style Renaissance architecture, set gracefully among the medieval houses of the street. The facing is travertine, with rusticated stonework on the ground floor and two orders of double-arched windows on the upper floors.
Inside, the courtyard has capitals almost certainly carved by Lorenzo di Mariano, known as il Marrina, around 1509-1510. On the roof is the altana, a small loggia with a magnificent panorama of the city.
In the summer of 1633 a famous guest climbed up there to look at the sky. Galileo Galilei was hosted by Archbishop Ascanio II Piccolomini from July 9 until December of that year and made observations of the Moon from the altana.
The palace's history then changes several times. When the Piccolomini family died out, at the end of the seventeenth century, it was rented to the Convitto Tolomei, a boarding school founded in 1629, which moved to another building in 1820. Pius II had created a consortium to bring together the various branches of the family, and it was the consortium that decided on the rental.
It later passed to the State, which put offices in it. In 1864 a restoration spoiled the original grotesques with heavy-handed work; from 1884 the palace belonged to the Bank of Italy, which made the neo-Renaissance decorations of the piano nobile.
In 1998 the palace opened as a Contemporary Art Center, with exhibitions by artists such as Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager and Jaume Plensa; it closed in 2008.
After years of changes of ownership, in 2025 it reopened as a venue for temporary exhibitions. The center was part of TRA ART, a Tuscan contemporary art network, and also hosted Radio Papesse, a project devoted to audio.
Don't miss
• The travertine facade.
• The courtyard with its capitals.
• The altana on the roof, where Galileo observed the Moon.
Did you know?
• The name "delle Papesse" has nothing to do with popesses: it comes from the sister of a pope.
• In the nineteenth century a heavy-handed restoration spoiled the original grotesques.
It has a travertine facade in the Florentine manner and a courtyard with carved capitals; it was Galileo's observatory in 1633 and for years was a contemporary art center.
It was commissioned by Caterina Piccolomini, sister of Pius II: hence the name "delle Papesse". The design is probably attributed to Bernardo Rossellino, the pope's favorite architect. Work ended around 1495, with the involvement of Antonio Federighi and Urbano da Cortona.
The facade is a convincing example of Florentine-style Renaissance architecture, set gracefully among the medieval houses of the street. The facing is travertine, with rusticated stonework on the ground floor and two orders of double-arched windows on the upper floors.
Inside, the courtyard has capitals almost certainly carved by Lorenzo di Mariano, known as il Marrina, around 1509-1510. On the roof is the altana, a small loggia with a magnificent panorama of the city.
In the summer of 1633 a famous guest climbed up there to look at the sky. Galileo Galilei was hosted by Archbishop Ascanio II Piccolomini from July 9 until December of that year and made observations of the Moon from the altana.
The palace's history then changes several times. When the Piccolomini family died out, at the end of the seventeenth century, it was rented to the Convitto Tolomei, a boarding school founded in 1629, which moved to another building in 1820. Pius II had created a consortium to bring together the various branches of the family, and it was the consortium that decided on the rental.
It later passed to the State, which put offices in it. In 1864 a restoration spoiled the original grotesques with heavy-handed work; from 1884 the palace belonged to the Bank of Italy, which made the neo-Renaissance decorations of the piano nobile.
In 1998 the palace opened as a Contemporary Art Center, with exhibitions by artists such as Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager and Jaume Plensa; it closed in 2008.
After years of changes of ownership, in 2025 it reopened as a venue for temporary exhibitions. The center was part of TRA ART, a Tuscan contemporary art network, and also hosted Radio Papesse, a project devoted to audio.
Don't miss
• The travertine facade.
• The courtyard with its capitals.
• The altana on the roof, where Galileo observed the Moon.
Did you know?
• The name "delle Papesse" has nothing to do with popesses: it comes from the sister of a pope.
• In the nineteenth century a heavy-handed restoration spoiled the original grotesques.