Explore Siena

Piazza del Campo is the main square of Siena, a sloping, shell-shaped piazza paved in brick and divided into nine sectors by strips of travertine. It is framed by the Palazzo Pubblico, the Torre del Mangia and the Fonte Gaia fountain, and twice each summer the Palio horse race is run around its edge.

The Torre del Mangia is the bell tower of Siena's Palazzo Pubblico, built between 1338 and 1348 and about 102 metres tall. At its foot stands the Cappella di Piazza, a marble loggia added after the Black Death. Visitors climb about 400 steps to the top for a view over the Campo and the city's rooftops.

Siena Synagogue stands in the former Jewish ghetto a short walk from Piazza del Campo and was completed in 1786 to designs by the Florentine architect Giuseppe del Rosso. Behind a plain stone facade, the first-floor prayer hall has a Neoclassical interior with a marble Torah ark. The building also houses the Jewish Museum of Siena.

Siena Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, was built mainly between 1215 and 1263 and is faced in bands of white and dark green marble. Inside are the inlaid marble floor, Nicola Pisano's pulpit and the Piccolomini Library with frescoes by Pinturicchio. The complex also includes the crypt, the baptistery and the cathedral museum.

Santa Maria della Scala is a former hospital opposite the steps of Siena Cathedral that cared for pilgrims, the sick, the poor and abandoned children from the late 12th century onwards. Now a museum complex, it includes the frescoed Pilgrims' Hall (Pellegrinaio), the church of the Santissima Annunziata and the city's archaeological museum.

The Basilica of San Domenico is a large brick Gothic church on the Camporegio hill in Siena, begun by the Dominicans in 1226 and enlarged in the 14th century. It is closely linked to Saint Catherine of Siena: her head and a thumb are kept as relics in a chapel frescoed by Il Sodoma, and the Cappella delle Volte recalls episodes of her life.

The Fortezza Medicea is a brick fortress on the northern edge of central Siena, built in 1561–1563 by the architect Baldassarre Lanci for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici after Florence took Siena. Turned into a public park in 1937, its broad tree-lined ramparts form a walk above the city, and it hosts a wine bar, exhibitions and concerts.