Siena’s fine Gothic City Hall is still the seat of city government. With its proud tower, this building symbolizes a republic independent from the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.
It also represents a rising secular society, one that appeared first in Tuscany in late medieval times, then spread throughout Europe as humanism took hold during the Renaissance.
City Hall has a fine and manageable museum on its top floor. You’ll see the large assembly hall where democracy was forged, adorned with some of Siena’s most historic frescoes. There’s memorabilia form the birth of the nation of Italy.
The highlight is a room of medieval-era frescoes depicting fascinating examples of governance – good and bad. Strolling the halls, you get a glimpse into the city-as-utopia, when this proud town considered itself the vanguard of Western civilization.
We start in the Sala del Risorgimento, with dramatic scenes of the 19th century unification of Italy. We made our way to the chapel, where the city’s governors and bureaucrats prayed.
Entering the Sala del Mappamondo, we find on one end of the room Maesta’ (Enthroned Virgin, 1315), by Siena’s great Simone Martini (1280 – 1344). Mary is surrounded by saints and angels, echoing the Maesta’ of Simone’s teacher, Duccio.
This groundbreaking work is Siena’s first fresco showing a Madonna not in a faraway, gold-leaf heaven, but under the blue sky of a real space that we inhabit. The saints are not a generic conga-line of Byzantine icons, but a milling crowd of 30 individuals with expressive faces.
On the opposite end of the room is the famous Equestrian Portrait of Guidoricio da Fogliano (1330), which depicts a mercenary commander surveying the scene of a six-month-long siege in which the Sienese captured the fortified city of Montemassi (on the left). What looks like a castle (in the middle) is a siege fort the Sienese built just for that battle, flying their black-and-white flag and with the catapult that helped them win.
We moved next to the Salla della Pace, where the Council of Nine, who ruled Siena from 1287 to 1355, met. To remind them of their responsibility to rule wisely, they were surrounded by a fascinating fresco series showing the Effects of Good and Bad Government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1337 – 1340).
Notice the better-preserved fresco (on the long wall to the right) depicting the beneficial effects of good government. Compare the whistle-while-you work happiness against the devastation of a community ruled by politicians with more typical values.
We capped our visit with a climb of the stairs to a grand view of the city and its surroundings.