Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy

The Palazzo Pubblico is Siena’s imposing Gothic town hall, situated on the world-famous Piazza del Campo. The building dates from the late 13th and early 14th centuries (construction began around 1297) and is regarded as one of the absolute masterpieces of civil Gothic architecture in Italy.
The palace was built for the ‘Council of Nine’, the republican city council of the time that led Siena to its economic and cultural heyday. Today, the building is still partly used as a town hall, but it also houses the famous Museo Civico (the city museum).

The Torre del Mangia: At 102 metres, this slender, perfectly straight bell tower is one of the tallest medieval towers in Italy. The tower was built between 1338 and 1348 and is named after its first bell-ringer, Giovanni di Balduccio. Climbing the more than 400 steps rewards you with a spectacular view over Siena and the Tuscan hills.

Cappella di Piazza: At the foot of the tower stands an open, marble loggia. This chapel was built in 1352 as an act of thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary after the city was struck by the devastating Black Death (the plague) in 1348.

The building has a striking façade consisting partly of natural stone (the ground floor with Gothic arches) and partly of red brick (the upper floors). The windows feature the typical trefoil arches characteristic of Sienese Gothic architecture. The gently sloping curve of the façade follows exactly the semicircular shape of the Piazza del Campo.

This poster is based on a photograph I took on 1 May 1991