Siena

The cruel siege of Siena

When the army of Europe’s most powerful monarch besieged the Tuscan city in 1554, it took terror and hunger to achieve what cannon and arquebus could not, as William E Welsh explains.

Below The Piazza del Campo in Siena. On the right is the city hall, the Palazzo Pubblico, with its distinctive pointed arches. The angular brick façade in the background on the left belongs to the Basilica di San Francesco.

Siena’s medieval monuments

As the Tuscan city of Siena grew in prosperity, its citizens made their mark through magnificent art and architecture, from aristocratic towers to allegorical frescoes. Historian Jane Stevenson takes us on a tour of its medieval monuments.