The street that leads to Montalcino will allow for an appreciation
of the true beauty of the place. Having arrived at the summit
the eyes can behold the splendour of an ample and varied panorama
from the Senese hills to the mountains of Amiata. The fortress
(constructed to defend the territory in 1361 by the Senese Mino
Foresi and Domenico di Feo utilizing the already pre-existing
thirteenth-century wall) rises to the highest point of the city
and dominates the surrounding valleys. On the wall of one of the
center rooms hangs a Standard attributed to the Sodoma school.
The center of this small town is exemplary of the architecture of
the late Middle Ages. Following the road across from the fortress
you will find on via Ricasoli a gothic marble portal and a rose
window that beautify the simple basic Romanesque facade of the Church
of Sant'Agostino (thirteenth-century). Nearby, although it will
soon be moved to the convent of the church of Sant' Agostino, you
will find the Musei Riuniti (civico and Diocesano). The museums
contain pieces of outstanding art work such as a Wooden Cross painted
in the twelfth of thirteenth-centuries by an unknown artist. It
is one of the oldest Senese works. There are also an Angelo annunciate
and a Madonna annunciata, two beautiful wooden sculptures from the
early fifteenth- century, as well as a Saint Sebastian and a Madonna
with Saints done in Robbian terracotta.
The
Duomo (San Salvatore) can be reached by going to the right after
leaving the museum. The Senese architect Agostino Fantastici Planned
a project (1812-32) to restructure to pre-existing church into the
neo-classical norm which dominated the time. Proceed downhill to
arrive at the Piazza del Popolo where the Palazzo Comunale (or dei
Priori) stands. In the square is La Loggia which was constructed
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In The contrada of Castelvecchio,
is the Church of San Francesco (XIII century) wich as been redone
over the course of time. Inside are the frescoes by Vincenzo Tamagni
painted in the early sixteenth-century. Just a few kilometers from
Montalcino rises the Abbazia di Sant'Antimo (1118). This is one
of the most beautiful Romanseque monastic churches in existence.
Its Romanesque-Lombard style gives its structure both a physical
force and delicacy at the same time.
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