Siena. A tale of the city from its origins to the Middle Ages
The path, which develops in the tunnels overlooking the internal road, illustrates, through archaeological materials, documentary sources, and a rich array of photographs and reconstruction tables, the historical development of Siena from the first discoveries in the urban area to the extraordinary flourishing of the communal era and the completed structure of the hospital in the mid-15th century.
The path, which develops in the tunnels overlooking the internal road, illustrates, through archaeological materials, documentary sources, and a rich array of photographs and reconstruction tables, the historical development of Siena from the first discoveries in the urban area to the extraordinary flourishing of the communal era and the completed structure of the hospital in the mid-15th century.
The path, which develops in the tunnels overlooking the internal road, illustrates, through archaeological materials, documentary sources, and a rich array of photographs and reconstruction tables, the historical development of Siena from the first discoveries in the urban area to the extraordinary flourishing of the communal era and the completed structure of the hospital in the mid-15th century. The theme is addressed through four sections, corresponding to as many partitions of the exhibition space, which articulate the development in as many chronological areas, and takes into account the scientific investigations carried out between the late 20th century and the early 2000s in the area of the hospital and Piazza Duomo. The first section is dedicated to the earliest traces of presence in the urban area: among the materials displayed are those from the stratigraphies of Etruscan times, from the excavations at Santa Maria della Scala, with fragments of decorated bucchero, fragments of white on red plates and acrome pottery, probably belonging to a residential building from the mid-7th century B.C. The exhibition continues with the development of the urban area from Hellenistic times and that of the Roman era, with the founding of the Augustan colony. For these periods, the exhibited material also comes from excavations under the hospital. The evolution of the cathedral hill in late antiquity and in the early Middle Ages has been reinterpreted in light of the significant archaeological documentation found in the excavations of the hospital and under the Duomo, reconstructing a historical picture that was previously very incomplete. The communal era is documented by the finds from the Carmine convent and the excavations of the Duomo, while the last section, in the chapel of San Girolamo, illustrates hospital life through the materials from Santa Maria, with particular attention to the finds recovered from the excavation of the aisles of San Galgano and Sant’Ansano. Included in the path are the spaces of the laundry, the chasm of the ‘carnaio’, and the ‘internal road’, a public street incorporated by the hospital. The project, curated by Silvia Pallecchi, Federico Cantini, Marie Ange Causarano, and Beatrice Sordini, is supported by a rich documentary apparatus, consisting of floor plans, reconstructions (entrusted to the Ink link study), and thematic insights, included in touch screen PCs.