Pienza, a
small town near Siena, is a rare example of Renaissance town building. Defined, from time
to time, the "ideal city", the "utopian city", it represents one of
the best planned Renaissance towns, where a model of ideal living and governing was
realized thus working out the idea of a town able to satisfy the need for a pacific, civil
and hardworking living. It represented the so called utopia of the "civitas"
vainly cherished by people for centuries.Pienza has at present two museum, a third one
into being. Its location in the middle of Val d'Orcia, a wonderful and untouched valley,
enables the town to perfectly embody the basic interest which the humanistic architecture
gave to the relationship man - nature. The center of Pienza was completely redesigned by
Pope Pius II in Renaissance times. He planned to transform his birthplace into a model
Renaissance town. The architect Bernardo Rossellino was commissioned to build a Duomo,
papal palace and town hall, the construction were completed in three years.The Duomo was
built by the architect Rossellino (1459) and is now suffering from serious subsidence at
its eastern end. There were cracks in the walls and floor of the nave, but the splendid
classical proportions are remained inctact. It is flooded with ligth from the vast stained
glass windows request by Pius II; he wanted a domus vitrea (litterally "a house of
glass"), which would symbolize the spirit of intellectual enlightenment of the
Humanist age. Nowadays Pienza is part of a territorial system called "Parco
artistico, naturale e culturale della Val d'Orcia", which aims at preservation of the
extraordinary artistic heritage of the five boroughs which constitute it: Castiglion
d'Orcia, Montalcino, San Quirico d'Orcia, Radicofani and Pienza. .
Pienza, a
small town near Siena, is a rare example of Renaissance town building. Defined, from time
to time, the "ideal city", the "utopian city", it represents one of
the best planned Renaissance towns, where a model of ideal living and governing was
realized thus working out the idea of a town able to satisfy the need for a pacific, civil
and hardworking living. It represented the so called utopia of the "civitas"
vainly cherished by people for centuries.Pienza has at present two museum, a third one
into being. Its location in the middle of Val d'Orcia, a wonderful and untouched valley,
enables the town to perfectly embody the basic interest which the humanistic architecture
gave to the relationship man - nature. The center of Pienza was completely redesigned by
Pope Pius II in Renaissance times. He planned to transform his birthplace into a model
Renaissance town. The architect Bernardo Rossellino was commissioned to build a Duomo,
papal palace and town hall, the construction were completed in three years.The Duomo was
built by the architect Rossellino (1459) and is now suffering from serious subsidence at
its eastern end. There were cracks in the walls and floor of the nave, but the splendid
classical proportions are remained inctact. It is flooded with ligth from the vast stained
glass windows request by Pius II; he wanted a domus vitrea (litterally "a house of
glass"), which would symbolize the spirit of intellectual enlightenment of the
Humanist age. Nowadays Pienza is part of a territorial system called "Parco
artistico, naturale e culturale della Val d'Orcia", which aims at preservation of the
extraordinary artistic heritage of the five boroughs which constitute it: Castiglion
d'Orcia, Montalcino, San Quirico d'Orcia, Radicofani and Pienza. .