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The village of Pienza, a symbol of beauty and aesthetic harmony, was
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declared by UNESCO heritage of humanity in the year 1996.
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Pienza is a small and charming Tuscan village, under the province of Siena, which together
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with Monticchiello, San Quirico d’Orcia, Montalcino, Radicofani and Castiglione d’Orcia,
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and other small villages in the area, characterize that particular and wonderful territory
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that goes by the name of Val d'Orcia: a natural, artistic and cultural park just under
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the Mount Amiata, declared by UNESCO world heritage of humanity in 2004. It is in the
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beating heart of the Val d’Orcia, the splendid valley which, with its hills and cypresses,
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develops along the river Orcia, symbol of excellence and harmony of the landscape,
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which has inspired school painters. The ancient medieval village known
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with the name Corsignano, which in 1462 became Pienza.
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The history of Pienza is closely linked to the figure and the personality of Enea Silvio Piccolomini,
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who, in 1458 elected Pope Pius II, wanted to transform the little Tuscan village in the
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"Ideal city" according to the urban canons of the Italian Renaissance. The transformation
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project was entrusted to the architect Bernardo by Matteo Gambardelli known as
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Rossellino, together with the humanist Leon Battista Alberti, considered
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one of the founders of Renaissance architecture.
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In just over three years, from 1458 to 1462, Pienza from a small village medieval
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known as Corsignano, became the ideal city of the Italian Renaissance in respect
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for the rules of decorum urban, symmetry and homogeneity with regard to space
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and the architectural forms, of proportions and geometric regularization that emerge
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in the different ones types of buildings collected In the central square of the village,
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known as Piazza Pio II, characterized by its particular trapezoidal shape and herringbone
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flooring: the Duomo of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta on the main side, Palazzo
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Piccolomini, Palazzo Vescovile (or also called Palazzo Borgia as it was donated by
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Pope Pius II to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, then Pope Alexander VI,
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who at the time was his closest collaborator) and the Town Hall.
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