• Introduction
• The village
• The walls
• The centre
• The Abbey

The Village

Detail

Porta degli Uomini

Old cellar

Only a few traces of the medieval castle are left, the oldest buildings from the original town being from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The most interesting of the buildings are those of the fifteenth century. These houses were built when the town was purchased by Siena. They are constructed of brick, with the classical rectangular windows characteristic of the Tuscan Renaissance.

A series of narrow streets cobweb their way within the centre and follow a typical medieval layout. They begin at the main entrance to Civitella, the Porta degli Uomini, of which all that remains are the ruins of the left side.

Visitors who enter at this point follow Via Cavour to Piazza Solforino where a fountain in travertine stone from 1898 can be seen.

At this point you have entered the medieval part of the town with its many narrow streets. At the end, on Via Roma, you will find a small square with its loggia of brickwork and a suspended arch that evokes the Sienese architecture of the sixteenth century.

The Porta Piccina is the only remaining entrance to the town but dates from a later era, the fifteenth century. Its brickwork is built on much older stones and looks out over a wonderful view of the Maremma and Roccastrada.

Near to the Porta Piccina, behind the town walls, is a building from the sixteenth century, erected on much older foundations. It belonged to the Pecci-Guidone family, as can be seen by their coat of arms of 1596 on the facade. The stone balustrade that borders the terrace is constructed from a collection of tiny balustrades containing monstrous faces and appears to be work from the nineteenth century.