The ancient Via Francigena pilgrimage road from Canterbury Cathedral in England to Rome, via France and Switzerland, passed through the Porta Fiorentina or Porta San Giovanni, the northern gateway, facing towards Florence, in the medieval walls encircling the hilltop frontier town of Monteriggioni, Tuscany, Italy.
Monteriggioni, Tuscany, Italy: the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury Cathedral in England to Rome, via France and Switzerland, passes through the Porta Fiorentina or Porta San Giovanni, the northern medieval gateway, facing towards Florence, in the early-13th century walls encircling this hilltop frontier town. To the right of the archway in this view from outside the walls, a stone slab refers to the verses in Canto 31 of the Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy by Tuscan poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), comparing the 14 towers rising at regular intervals around Monteriggioni's walls to his vision of "horrible" giants, stuck up to their waists in a well between the eighth and ninth circles of Hell. He wrote: "As with circling round Of turrets, Monteriggioni crowns his walls; E’en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss, Was turreted with giants, half their length Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from heaven Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls." Dante wrote the Inferno about a century after Monteriggioni had been founded by the city of Siena as a bulwark against Florentine troops attacking Sienese territory along the Via Francigena. In the centuries-long struggle for supremacy between Florence and Siena, it came under siege several times, but proved almost impregnable. The wall, built between 1213 and 1219, runs for about 570 m (1,870 ft), and is also pierced by a southern gateway, the Porta Romea, facing south towards Rome.
Size: 2541px × 3776px
Location: Monteriggioni, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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