Historic Centre of San Gimignano
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How it came to be
San Gimignano stands on a hill in Tuscany, 56 km south of Florence. It is named after Geminianus, bishop of Modena, said to have saved the place in the 5th century, and in the 6th and 7th centuries a walled village grew up around his church. From 929 the town was ruled by the bishop of Volterra. It became a relay point for pilgrims on the Via Francigena to Rome and prospered from saffron and Vernaccia wine from the surrounding hills.
In 1199 the town freed itself from the bishops of Volterra and became a commune. For the next two centuries conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines and rivalries between families drove the leading clans to build ever taller tower-houses as symbols of wealth and power. Their number reached about 72, until the council ruled that no tower could be higher than the one beside the Palazzo Comunale. On 8 May 1300 Dante Alighieri came to the town as ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany.
The Black Death of 1348 killed about half the townsfolk, and San Gimignano submitted to Florence. Many towers were cut down to the height of the houses. With little later development, the town kept its medieval form into the 19th century. Fourteen towers survive, the tallest being the Torre Grossa of 1311. The town also holds masterpieces of 14th- and 15th-century Italian art, and it was inscribed in 1990.
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