Introduction
Historical BackgroundThe montone (ram) symbolizes perseverance, and along the centuries it was often mentioned together with the Castel Montone, an ancient castle above theValle dei Servi (Valley of the Servants) below. This terminology appears for the first time in a 1043 document. There was also a small village with this name in the “Valley of the Ram,” which was separated from the city of Siena and dated to Etruscan times. It is not certain where the name Montone comes from, because there are several legends about it. One says a Roman centurion, named Montorio or Montonio, was sent from Rome to Siena by Romulus and was ordered to capture and bring back Senio and Ascanio, Romulus’ rebellious nephews.Also, originally Siena started as fortified Roman military camps on three separate hills. The one in this contrada was the Castrum Montonis, where now stands the Basilica of the Servi. The castrum was a defensive building, like a castle. Later these three camps were named Terzi (Thirds), and the city is still divided among them.Another legend tells of many shepherds who kept their flocks in that fertile valley. A fourth legend says Castello de Montone got its name from Montone Piccolomini’s family, whose name appears on an 1165 document. The Piccolomini family was a noble family of Siena.A fifth, and perhaps most believable legend, says this toponym derives from Mons Magnum (Big Mountain), which is mentioned in a 1205 document. This legend claims the name comes from the physical characteristics of the territory with its valley and hill. This hill was a strategic place for a defensive structure, thus the castle was built upon it.
#1 Via di Porta Giustizia
Behind Palazzo Pubblico in Piazza del Campo is the Piazza del Mercato (Old Market Square). This belongs to the Tower and Wave Contradas, so please refer to those chapters for this interesting location. Facing away from the Palzzo Pubblico, walk toward the far end of the piazza. You will see in front of you on your right, Via di Porta Giustizia that winds down the hill. On the corner at number 6 is a restaurant.At the Ristorante Malborghetto on the city walls, you will find a good meal and pizza at a good price. Servings are generous. Giuseppe, the chef, is very friendly, and the view is breathtaking.Via di Porta Giustizia (literally “take to justice”) is named as such because anciently those who were sentenced to death were taken through this road down to the valley below to be executed outside the city walls. After you finish your pizza at the Malborghetto, follow the Via di Porta Giustizia downhill. On your left is an old laundry facility. People brought their laundry here to wash, even as recently as the 1970s. Sometimes it serves as a flower market on certain days for the Tower Contrada.
#2 Orto de’ Pecci
Turn right down the gravel road and follow it through a gate.On both sides are fruit trees and vegetable gardens. These belong to another good restaurant, the historical Orto de’ Pecci. You can eat here, where the menu is entitled “What can I eat today?” as the plates change day to day depending on the season and the fruits and vegetables produced in their orchard. The rooms, filled with frescoes, create a unique ambience for every occasion, and during the winter, you can eat in front of a large fireplace to stay warm. During the summer, you can eat outside under the pergola or in the gazebo, enjoying the views of the City Hall and the Torre del Mangia, while eating great Sienese food.This establishment started in 1983, when a group of health and social workers got together with the purpose of helping local unemployed and marginalized patients, who could take care of the garden owned by the psychiatric hospital. Both nurses and patients worked the garden and, starting in 1996, they opened a restaurant. In 2000, they became an autonomous cooperative and still work with disadvantaged people in need. They now have a Medieval Garden, offer banquets for special occasions, concerts, and other cultural events for schoolchildren, locals, and tourists. Several BYU students have worked in the Orto as interns in culinary sciences, and BYU Study Abroad Groups have often dined there. Be sure to visit the animals at the medieval farm.As you sit in this place, do you wonder why this section of countryside is inside the city walls? Legend states this entire section of the city perished in the great Black Death, the plague that reached Italy in 1347. It was so bad they demolished this section of the city and left it as a huge graveyard. Locals might tell you that if you scrape the surface of this earth, you will find bricks and bones. Perhaps this is where the name Malborghetto (bad or evil hamlet) came from.
#3 Via del Sole
Return to the city via the gravel path. At the end of the gravel path, where the pavement begins again, turn right on Via del Sole, and walk along the whole length of this street.As you walk along Via del Sole, don’t forget to occasionally look to your right to enjoy the beautiful view of the city from the south. Look across the ravine to see the Wave Contrada and the huge buttresses holding up Chiesa di Sant’Agostino.
#4 Chiesa di San Girolamo
As you follow Via del Sole straight ahead along an old city wall, it will open up into a little square. You will see a small church with an interesting clock tower and a fresco on its façade.Chiesa di San Girolamo was founded in 1230 for the Jesuit Friars. It was restored many times, and during the 1552–55 war, was occupied by the Spanish. In 1677, it was given to the Congregation to the Poor and Abandoned Virgins, and in 1855 to the Daughters of Charity devoted to Saint Vincenzo de’ Paoli. Now it is the seat of the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity, an order of nuns. On the first altar on the right, you will see Saint Ann with Mary and Child by Giovanni di Lorenzo (1530). On the two sides of the main altar, there are two paintings by Rutilio Manetti, the Angel and the Annunciation of the Virgin. In the gallery, there is a polychrome statue of Santa Caterina di Siena by Giacomo Cozzarelli. Sienese citizens living in Rome donted the statue to the faithful Sienese who journeyed to Rome for the Holy Year in 1600.
#5 Via San Girolamo
As you exit this little square, you will be spilled out onto the intersection of Via San Girolamo (in front of you), Via dei Servi, and Via delle Cantine (to your right). Walk straight in front of you up Via San Girolamo.Notice the wall and buttressing on your left as you walk on Via San Girolamo. You will also see caper bushes hanging from the wall; these bushes produce capers, the tangy strong flavor in many Italian dishes. You will also notice on your left, tucked into the corner of one of the buttresses a brown metal stall that looks kind of like a phone booth. As they say, “do as the Romans do,” or I guess in this case, it is the Sienese. This is an outside urinal. If somebody is there, quickly turn away.
#6 Fontana della Contrada Valdimontone
Continue on Via San Girolamo until you see a column in front of you. On your left is la fontana della Contrada Valdimontone.La fontana della Contrada Valdimontone is decorated with symbols, sculptures, the coat of arms of the Medici family on the back, and on the left Siena’s black and white badge with the People’s Lion, but not with images relating to the Ram. Which is strange, right? It is a beautiful, monumental fountain, though, and worth a stop. This is also called la fontana di San Maurizio and was first built in the fourteenth century. At that time, this area of Siena did not have enough drinking water, and the city gave financial help to the citizens who would dig a well or a storage tank. In 1293, a blacksmith named Tura di Maffeo built a water tank here, and later this fountain was placed in that same spot. Today, we see only the original main water basin, while there are only a few traces of the watering trough and the washtub on the wall above. In the middle of the tub there is a brick pedestal where once stood a statue of a dolphin spouting water, a sculpture by the Sienese Dionisio Mazzuoli. This is the only fountain in the Ram territory.
#7 Basilica di San Clemente a Santa Maria dei Servi
Retrace your steps back until you are again where Via del Sole leaves you at San Girolamo Church. If you are standing in that intersection looking at the clock tower, turn left, then go down the street on your right, which will be Via dei Servi. At the end of Via dei Servi is Manzoni Square, where the beautiful Basilica di San Clemente a Santa Maria dei Servi stands.The Basilica di San Clemente a Santa Maria dei Servi (known simply as Santa Maria dei Servi) and the bell tower were built in the thirteenth century where once stood the Chiesa di San Clemente, which belonged to the Servite order, a catholic group of mendicant friars. Many changes and restorations of this basilica continued up to the sixteenth century. Its simple façade has a single door with a rose window on top (you can also still see where a former round window was placed right below it). The exterior style of this church is Romanesque. The campanile or bell tower follows the same pattern as the campanile of the duomo; each level has one more mullion (dividing bar in the window) than the one below it. If you stand on the front steps and turn away from the church, you will have a beautiful view of the Palazzo Pubblico and the Cathedral of Siena.As you step inside, you will be overwhelmed by the magnitude of this church. By the entrance there is a Holy Water basin dating to the thirteenth century. Baldassarre Peruzzi decorated the three aisles in Renaissance style, while the apse (the end of the nave behind the altar) and the transept are in Gothic style. You will also see many important works of Sienese art in this church, among which are the Coronation of the Virgin by Bernardino Fungai (1498–1501); and Massacre of the Innocents by Matteo di Giovanni (1491). In addition, there’s the Madonna with Saints by Matteo di Giovanni; the Madonna with Child by Duccio di Bonaventura; and the Slaughter of the Innocents, Herod’s Feast, and the Death of Saint John the Evangelist by Pietro Lorenzetti.Probably the most significant artwork in the basilica is the Madonna del Bordone by Florentine painter Coppo di Marcovaldo (1261). After the successful battle of Montaperti when Siena defeated Florence, Coppo was taken prisoner into Siena. He paid his own ransom by painting this work. It is the oldest work in the basilica, you will notice the linear Byzantine style which was popular in the early medieval period. The Madonna sits on a cushioned throne while being looked at tenderly by the Christ child.Also pay attention to Adoration of the Shepherds by Taddeo di Bartolo (1404). It is a simple and traditional scene of the nativity, with only one ox and one ass. Most Italian nativity scenes follow this pattern. Also indicative of Italian and southern European tradition is that the nativity is found in a cave, not a barn. By the church at number 5 in Manzoni Square, there is a boarding house for university students, the Convento Casa Famiglia.
#8 L’oratorio della compagnia della Santissima Trinità
Face the church again and take the street that goes back behind the church on the left. You are now on Via Valdimontone, the heart of this contrada. Here you will find la sede, l’oratorio, and the museo della Contrada Valdimontone.L’oratorio della compagnia della Santissima Trinità stands behind the apse of the Santa Maria dei Servi—the church you just visited. It was built in the fourteenth century and was improved in the sixteenth century. The name of its architect is unknown. Inside there is a single nave divided into two sections, white and golden stuccos by Lorenzo Rustici, and many precious paintings on the walls and the ceiling. On the main altar is the bronze Crucifix by Prospero Antichi, also known as the Bresciano (1577) and the painting of the Dolenti by Alessandro Casolani (1587). On both sides of the altar, there are statues of King David and the Redeemer by Antonio Buonvicino (1579–80). Other paintings are the frescoes by Ventura Salimbeni (Paradise and Apocalipse Scenes). In Baroque times, Raffaello Vanni painted Clodoveo’s Victory over Alarico and Giuseppe Nicola Nasini painted the Trinity (1652 and 1696, respectively). The Ram Contrada has owned this oratory since the mid-1600s.The museo della Contrada Valdimontone is relatively new. Construction began in 1973 by joining the old Church of San Leonardo with newly built rooms between the oratory and the old city walls. The architects were Giovanni Michelucci (who built the modern Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence) and Bruno Sacchi. The new museum finally opened in 1997. It now contains the Palio banners the Ram won throughout the centuries, costumes, and other precious artifacts all connected to the history of the Ram Contrada.
#9 Giuseppe Garibaldi
Across the street is a plaque on the wall of the house at number 1.Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi was a guest of Raffaello Cantucci here. Garibaldi is called the “Hero of the Two Worlds,” because in the nineteenth century he fought for the independence of South American countries and Italian independence by conquering Sicily and southern Italy. In 1861, US President Abraham Lincoln asked him to lead the northern forces during the American Civil War, but Garibaldi declined, because he was still engaged in joining the city of Rome to the new Italian nation.
#10 Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli
After you exit the museum, walk the length of Via Valdimontone, coming down a flight of long steps. In front of you as you descend, you will see the beautiful façade of the old San Leonardo church with a lovely lunette above the door of the Madonna and child with saints. There are also plaques on the wall with symbols of the Valdimontone and the Knights of Malta. There is also a striking Romanesque-style bell tower. At the bottom of the stairs, continue on this street until you can turn right on Via Roma, so-named because it was the main road leading to Rome, along the French Pilgrims’ trail. As you turn into it, across the street is the ancient Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli.The Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli, also called Chiesa del Santuccio, is located on Via Roma 69 and anciently was part of a monastery. You might not notice it because it is built into the brick building next door (the former monastery) but look for the cross on the top of the façade, built by Annibale Bichi. Inside there is a beautiful altarpiece by Francesco Vanni, Ventura Salimbeni, and Sebastiano Folli, Madonna and Child with Saints. Frescoes depicting the Life of San Galgano are the works of Ventura Salimbeni. This building now hosts a business headquarters.
#11 Museo della Società di Esecutori di Pie Disposizioni
Continue on Via Roma.At number 71, is the museo della Società di Esecutori di Pie Disposizioni, housed in two buildings. Here you will see crucifixes by followers of Duccio and the Madonna and child and Saints by Lippo Vanni. Other works by Sano di Pietro, Rutilio Manetti, and Sodoma are also present here.
#12 Opsidale Psichiatrico di San Nicolo
As you exit the museo, you will see an arch in front of you across the street. The inscription on the top will tell you the monumental complex behind it is the former psychiatric hospital.Siena’s historic Opsidale Psichiatrico di San Nicolo was built at the end of the nineteenth century over what remained of the Saint Niccolò convent, which was built during the fourteenth century. This was later called “the city of the mad,” because it had roads, workshops, kitchens, laundry facilities, etc. In fact, the medical staff employed the mentally disabled patients in therapeutic work to help them heal. If you walk around here, you can still see rusted signs indicating streets and squares. The hospital also has a scientific library (with many works on neurology and psychiatry) and a pharmacy (built in 1885 in Pompeiian style and still mostly intact). The library is now owned by the University of Siena’s medical school. There is also a collection of medical and surgical instruments from the nineteenth century. This is the only complex structure of this kind in Italy created for the mentally disabled.A cultural center, named La Corte dei Miracoli, is also part of this complex. It is a nonprofit association that features aspects of Sienese culture, including art, theatre, and instruction. This place is also the seat of several university departments, such as engineering, communications, history, and archaeology, a center for mental health, orthopedic rehabilitation, an emergency call center, and housing for members of the Ram contrada.
#13 Mediterranean pines
Continue down Via Roma away from the city. On this street, you will notice a few Mediterranean pine trees.These pine trees are also called “umbrella pines,” because they have a long trunk topped by branches that open wide like an umbrella. These are typical of Italy, especially in the area around Rome and Naples. These are the pines Italian composer Ottorino Respighi had in mind when he composed The Pines of Rome.
#14 Porta Romana
At the end of this boulevard stands the beautiful Porta Romana, the “Roman” City Gate.Porta Romana is one of the major city gates in Siena, built between 1327 to 1330 to replace the old San Martino City Gate. Porta Romana is a beautiful example of medieval fortifications—a double structure with three arches: the central one for vehicles, the side ones for pedestrians. On top of the middle arch facing north, you will notice Siena’s symbol in black and white, reminiscent of the two horses, one black, one white, that, according to legend, twins Senio and Ascanio rode when fleeing from Rome and their uncle Romulus. That same legend says they took refuge on these hills and founded the city of Siena.As you walk under this first arch, you’ll see at the top remains from the fresco Crowning of the Virgin Mary by Taddeo di Bartolo and Sassetta, badly damaged by bombs in 1944 at the end of WWII. Other frescoes original to this gate are now kept in Siena’s Basilica di San Francesco. In the opening on top of this first arch is the Medici family coat of arms. After the Medici’s took control of Siena, they wanted to make sure people entering the city knew the Medici ruled here. Notice the arrow slits where archers shot arrows out of the gate for defense. You can also see metal rings still on the walls both inside and outside of this gate. They were “parking stalls” for horses.
The End
This is the end of your walk. If you still have time, continue on Via Enea Silvio Piccolomini (ahead of you) named after a noble Sienese who became Pope Pius II from 1458 until his death in 1464. From this street, you can enjoy the outskirts of Siena and its beautiful countryside. If you continue south on this road, this will turn into SS2, a long and beautiful highway leading all the way to Rome (hence, the name of the city gate located here). However, there are now newer and faster ways to get to the capital city of Italy.
