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Siena
KNOWLEDGE OF Siena
It would have been much too easy to have built a city on a plain. The cities of Tuscany have always been known for liking a challenge. In keeping with this tradition, Siena originated on three hills, on land full of orchards and gardens, providing tough construction work for even the most ingenious builders. These three hills, bordered by the Elsa and the Arbia, marked out the original three sections of the city. These three sections, of which Di Città was the first, then San Martino, and then Camollia, led to the creation of the city districts. There were originally fifty-four districts, which have now been concentrated into seventeen.
There are two differing legends about the foundation of the city. According to some it was founded by Galli Senoni, while others maintain that it was Senio, the son of Remus, who was here first. The discussion is by now somewhat old and tired, and yet it still monopolises the conversations here. There is no doubt, however, that the city is of Etruscan origin, and was a part of the Roman Empire, under Augustus. Longobards governed the city during the dark ages and they were later succeeded by Frank counts. This state of affairs continued on into the next millenium, when, faced with such a cumbersome Guelph neighbour as Florence, what choice did Siena have but to be Ghibelline? Siena was Ghibelline of sorts until 1186 when it was besieged by imperial forces. Luckily, this did not last long and Siena returned to its former state. The years between 1235 and 1236 were a turning point. Florence imposed a difficult peace upon Siena, who lost possession of Poggibonsi and Montalcino. Times were also changing on a domestic level, when the nobility were forced to accept a city ruled by a council made up of noblemen and the middle classes. In 1260, Siena enjoyed military revenge over Florence, at the battle of Montaperti, after which they humiliated the flag of Florence, leading it around the city on a donkey.
Unfortunately, this act of vengeance and defiance was to be one of their last as the fortunes of the empire were in decline, due to papal excommunication as a result of the Ghibelline allegiance, which legally prevented debtors from paying their dues into Sienese banks. Siena was then defeated at Monteriggioni, on the eleventh of June 1269 and was facing both military and political defeat. Provenzano Salvani, the Ghibelline leader, died and a Guelph city government was formed, allied to Florence. Despite the change, the new government worked better than expected. This was a time of great commercial expansion, artistic vigour and civic virtue. However, the good times couldn’t last forever and in 1326, there was a period of decline, followed by the plague in 1348. The Ghibellines regained power and took over the government, alongside Charles IV. Finally, out of desperation, the city came under the control of
Gian Galeazzo Visconti, for three years, until his death.
These trials and tribulations were hardly isolated in central Italy towards the end of the middle ages. Both from a military and political point of view, the golden age, saw more flashes of iron and steel weapons than the auric metal itself. However, one thing is certain the genii that hail from Siena come from a land that has been fed and watered with the blood of its people. King Carlo V hurled himself into the fray, and created his own government in 1530. After twenty years the rebellion exploded and the imperialists were hounded out. They then made an agreement with the hated Florence, which neither worked nor lasted. In 1553, there came a day of reckoning which led to a two year siege during which the defenders lived on insects and mice and which put an end to secular freedom. The beginning of the ‘iron century’, as it was called by Mentet de Salmonet, coincided with the end of the cultural age, which in the course of a century had seen the likes of Machiavelli, Leonardo, Raffaello, Carpaccio, Crivelli, Bosch, Lotto, Titian, Piero della Francesca, Pontormo, Palladio, Tintoretto, the Della Robbia, Parmigianino and Dürer. After Cosimo and his de’ Medici clan were in power, Siena was handed over to the Lorena family, and finally came under the rule of the Savoy. The rest, as they say… is history.
There are two differing legends about the foundation of the city. According to some it was founded by Galli Senoni, while others maintain that it was Senio, the son of Remus, who was here first. The discussion is by now somewhat old and tired, and yet it still monopolises the conversations here. There is no doubt, however, that the city is of Etruscan origin, and was a part of the Roman Empire, under Augustus. Longobards governed the city during the dark ages and they were later succeeded by Frank counts. This state of affairs continued on into the next millenium, when, faced with such a cumbersome Guelph neighbour as Florence, what choice did Siena have but to be Ghibelline? Siena was Ghibelline of sorts until 1186 when it was besieged by imperial forces. Luckily, this did not last long and Siena returned to its former state. The years between 1235 and 1236 were a turning point. Florence imposed a difficult peace upon Siena, who lost possession of Poggibonsi and Montalcino. Times were also changing on a domestic level, when the nobility were forced to accept a city ruled by a council made up of noblemen and the middle classes. In 1260, Siena enjoyed military revenge over Florence, at the battle of Montaperti, after which they humiliated the flag of Florence, leading it around the city on a donkey.
Unfortunately, this act of vengeance and defiance was to be one of their last as the fortunes of the empire were in decline, due to papal excommunication as a result of the Ghibelline allegiance, which legally prevented debtors from paying their dues into Sienese banks. Siena was then defeated at Monteriggioni, on the eleventh of June 1269 and was facing both military and political defeat. Provenzano Salvani, the Ghibelline leader, died and a Guelph city government was formed, allied to Florence. Despite the change, the new government worked better than expected. This was a time of great commercial expansion, artistic vigour and civic virtue. However, the good times couldn’t last forever and in 1326, there was a period of decline, followed by the plague in 1348. The Ghibellines regained power and took over the government, alongside Charles IV. Finally, out of desperation, the city came under the control of
Gian Galeazzo Visconti, for three years, until his death.
These trials and tribulations were hardly isolated in central Italy towards the end of the middle ages. Both from a military and political point of view, the golden age, saw more flashes of iron and steel weapons than the auric metal itself. However, one thing is certain the genii that hail from Siena come from a land that has been fed and watered with the blood of its people. King Carlo V hurled himself into the fray, and created his own government in 1530. After twenty years the rebellion exploded and the imperialists were hounded out. They then made an agreement with the hated Florence, which neither worked nor lasted. In 1553, there came a day of reckoning which led to a two year siege during which the defenders lived on insects and mice and which put an end to secular freedom. The beginning of the ‘iron century’, as it was called by Mentet de Salmonet, coincided with the end of the cultural age, which in the course of a century had seen the likes of Machiavelli, Leonardo, Raffaello, Carpaccio, Crivelli, Bosch, Lotto, Titian, Piero della Francesca, Pontormo, Palladio, Tintoretto, the Della Robbia, Parmigianino and Dürer. After Cosimo and his de’ Medici clan were in power, Siena was handed over to the Lorena family, and finally came under the rule of the Savoy. The rest, as they say… is history.
Chapi