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 road to Rome ... Christian pilgrims following the Via Francigena, the ancient route from Canterbury in England to Rome, via France and Switzerland, used to enter this hilltop frontier town through the Porta Fiorentina or Porta San Giovanni, the northern gateway piercing the early-13th century walls. On its outer face, to the left of the archway in this view from within the walls, an inscription refers to the verses by Tuscan poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), in Canto 31 of the Inferno, part of his Divine Comedy, comparing Monteriggioni's 14 watchtowers 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 around a hundred years after Monteriggioni was founded by the city of Siena as a bulwark against attacks by Florence 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 the southern gateway, the Porta Romea, through which the pilgrims continued their journey to Rome.
Size: 2676px × 4007px
Location: Monteriggioni, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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