Historic Centre of Siena
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How it came to be
Siena was first settled in Etruscan times, and under Augustus a Roman town called Saena Iulia was founded on the site. The city was built around the Piazza del Campo. The Republic of Siena emerged in the 12th century and prospered on wool and banking.
Between the 12th and 15th centuries the city took on its Gothic form, and Duccio, the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini changed the course of Italian and European art. In the 1330s Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted the Allegory of Good and Bad Government in the Sala dei Nove of the Palazzo Pubblico. Before the Black Death of 1348 the city had 50,000 people; about half of them died, and work on the cathedral stopped, leaving it unfinished.
After a long rivalry with Florence, Siena surrendered on 17 April 1555 after 18 months of resistance, ending the republic. The Medici rebuilt the Fort of Santa Barbara on the west side from 1560, finishing it in 1580. Seven kilometres of walls still surround the historic centre. In 1966 it became the first European city to ban cars from its main square, and the historic centre was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1995.
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