Palazzo Piccolomini

History

The palace, also known as the Pontifical, was commissioned by Enea Piccolomini, or Pope Pius II, to Italian Renaissance sculpture Bernardo Rossellino, as part of the project for the reconstruction of Pienza as the ideal city. It was designed in the second half of the 15th century, after 1459. For its construction Rossellino was inspired by the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, the work of his master Leon Battista Alberti. The residential palace is one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture.

Description

The building is now a museum, where you can visit the ancient hall of arms, Pius II's study, bedchambers, the art and sculpture collection he built. It has a square plan, developed on three floors, made of rustic light stone. It is one of the buildings in the trapezoidal piazza. On the west side is the Palazzo Piccolomini. The Duomo Cathedral is at the center of the piazza.

On the ground floor there is a main entrance to the building that overlooks the central courtyard. The courtyard is rectangular with a loggia to supported by stone columns. On the first and second floors there are two rows of windows of considerable size, equal distant from each other, with pilaster pilasters with Renaissance architecture. Each window is divided into two parts by a thin column. Below the windows, as if to highlight the internal attics, a frame that runs along the corners and between some windows the family crests, in stone, with the apostolic insignia in gold and silver. On a clear day, you can see distant landscape of the Val d'Orcia and the hills of Monte Amiata.