Monteriggioni

Orange Flag of the Italian Touring Club

Monteriggioni is one of the few examples of medieval military architecture and preserves, practically intact, the ancient wall circle and the fourteen towers. The castle was built by the Sienese (1214) as an outpost against the Florentines. The main access gate is Porta Romea, whose name is linked to the terminus of Via Francigena on which Monteriggioni arose; those who left were on their way to Rome or Jerusalem, those who entered had completed their pilgrimage and were on their way north.

Once past the door, Piazza Alighieri (formerly Rome) is wide and wide, with a cistern in the centre around which a few stone houses are gathered. It overlooks the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, with simple and elegant Romanesque-Gothic lines. Under the walls, gardens, vegetable gardens and olive groves develop behind the houses. Worth a visit: the walkways on the city walls and the Monteriggioni educational path in Arme, with a reproduction of weapons and armor from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and models that explain means and techniques of siege of the time.