The hill top town of Pienza Siena District Tuscany Italy
Pienza was built on a village called Corsignano , which was the birthplace (1405) of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, a Renaissance Humanist born into an exiled Sienese family, who later became Pope Pius II. Once become Pope, he had the entire village rebuilt as an ideal Renaissance town - which has led some historians to dub Pienza as the "utopian" town. It represents the first application of so-called humanist urban planning concepts, creating an impetus for planning that was adopted in other Italian towns and cities and eventually spread to other European centers. The rebuilding work was done by Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli (known as Rossellino) under the guidance of Leon Battista Alberti, starting in about 1459. Pope Pius II consecrated the Duomo, which sits across from the Piazza Comunale on Pienza's main piazza, the Piazza Pio II, on August 29, 1462. The Palazzo Piccolomini, the Pope's family home (inspired to Florence's Palazzo Rucellai), and the Palazzo Borgia (Palazzo Vescovile, residence of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope as Alexander VI) also front the piazza.
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Photo credit: © Mike Kipling Photography ITALY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: architecture, attractive, corsigano, countryside, destination, europe, hill, italy, kipling, mike, pienza, planning, renaiassance, rossellino, scenic, southern, top, tourist, town, travel, tuscan, tuscany
