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

The Centre

The streets of the village

The well

Madonnina

The square of the Church

L'arco - an old passage

You enter the town through what was once the oldest doorway into Civitella, called the Porta Conti. It was through this doorway that the Ardengheschi entered the town. While there is no longer any trace of the doorway, nevertheless several ancient palazzi of the former nobles can be seen in the small square. You can also see the remains of an ancient sundial.

A drinking fountain from 1898, similar to that in the Piazza Solforino, can be seen on Largo di Via Farini. It is located within a hexagonal well built over a large underground cistern used to store water.

Palazzo Franceschini is located on the left-hand side of Via Marconi. Today it is the administrative seat of the Borough. Its elegant brick construction, in the Sienese style, is from the fifteenth century. On the façade can be seen the coat of arms of the Marquis of Paganico, also a small votive niche containing an image of the Madonna di Provenzano, the original of which is venerated in Collegiata di Santa Maria in Provenzano in Siena. The two double doors are from a later period and appear to be seventeenth-century.

Along Via Costarella, we can see a beautifully made, marble votive carving in the pure Renaissance style and dated 1504.

Santa Maria in Montibus, and the Oratory of the Misericordia

The Church of Santa Maria in Montibus is located next to a fifteenth-century building in front of the Piazza del Popolo.

Sadly nothing remains of the much older church of San Fabiano e Sebastiano. The name of the present church is taken from the original baptism font, from the Pieve di Santa Maria de' Monti. This font, however, is no longer in the present church.

Inside the church can be seen a holy water stoop from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, as well as a large organ from the nineteenth century. Inside the organ, five hundred organ pipes can be found which must have come from a much older instrument.

The wooden benches to the side of the transept and in front of the altar, are of excellent seventeenth-century make, but were badly damaged during later attempts at restoration.

On the left of the altar is a painting, probably of the seventeenth century, of the saints Ansano, Sebastiano and Fabiano.

The Oratorio della Misericordia is located beside the church and probably dates from the seventeenth century. Two fine murals from the seventeenth-century Sienese school can be seen at the side of the main altar. They depict Saint Joseph with two apostles.

A votive painting of the Madonna and Child of the Sienese school is again from the seventeenth century. Of particular interest are the painted wooden statue from the eighteenth century, and the fine processional crucifix from the late sixteenth century.

At the end of the Piazza del Popolo stands a seventeenth-century bell tower. At its base is an elegant loggetta from the fifteenth century with closed arches of a subsequent period.

There are many churches and chapels within the region of Civitella. In most cases all that remains of them are ruins, but some are not without interest including the historic parish church a kilometre southeast of the town.