Siena city guide

Pick a place in Siena. Open the full story or choose a shorter read.

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Santa Maria della Scala

Text guide

Siena, Italy ✳

Squares & civic life

Piazza del Campo

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Piazza del Campo seen from the Torre del Mangia.

Follow the slope and nine paving sections to understand a deliberately organised public meeting place.♫

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Full story · About 2 min read✳

Siena tour guides

Explore Siena with five free written guides, photos and a map. Read the stories of the Campo, Palazzo Pubblico, cathedral, Fontebranda and Santa Maria della Scala.

Piazza del Campo guide · Follow the slope and nine paving sections to understand a deliberately organised public meeting place.

Palazzo Pubblico guide · Read a town hall whose painted rooms asked rulers to consider justice and its consequences.

Siena Cathedral guide · Separate the striped cathedral, the unfinished enlargement and the artworks that moved into its museum.

Fontebranda guide · Follow the sequence of basins to see how Siena shared a precious supply between people, animals and trades.

Santa Maria della Scala guide · Read a medieval hospital through the images it made of its own care, charity and civic standing.

More places nearby

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Palazzo PubblicoSiena

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Siena CathedralSiena

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Sources and photo credits

Photo: Il campo view from torre.jpg by Mark Sehnert · Public domain. Resized and compressed; cropped for display.

Siena city guide

Explore Siena

Siena's monuments explain how a city worked. The Campo made room for public life; Palazzo Pubblico housed government; the cathedral expressed religious ambition. Fontebranda supplied water for people and trades, while Santa Maria della Scala cared for travellers, sick people and children. These five guides connect the famous views with the institutions behind them.

The Campo and Palazzo Pubblico share one setting but have different stories. The cathedral and former hospital face each other on higher ground. Fontebranda lies below them towards the northwest. Siena's hills matter, so proximity on the map is not a promise of an easy, level walk. Pick places individually and use the stories on site or at home.

Choose a short story or read more detail with 5 free guides to the city’s landmarks and neighbourhoods.

A square and its government

Read the Campo for its slope, paving and rules governing the buildings around it. Palazzo Pubblico then takes the story inside government, where painted images asked rulers to consider justice and the effects of their decisions.

Piazza del Campo

Follow the slope and nine paving sections to understand a deliberately organised public meeting place.