San Gimignano
On a foray through the “Manhattan” of Italy
San Gimignano in Tuscany has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.
© Lowell Monke / Shutterstock.com
A spectacular skyline awaits visitors in the province of Siena: it is not for nothing that San Gimignano is also called “Medieval Manhattan”.
The skyline in the middle of the Tuscan hills can be seen from afar: San Gimignano is also called “Medieval Manhattan” because of its many towers and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. Once it was only a stop for pilgrims and traders on their way to Rome. Today the “City of Towers” attracts Italophiles from all over the world – a foray.
Gender towers rise over 50 meters in height
Anyone who decides to vacation in Tuscany has the usual suspects on their to-do list: Siena, Florence, Pisa, Arezzo. You should definitely add San Gimignano, because nowhere else you can see the history better than in the medieval city center. This testifies to the power struggles that the local patrician families fought among themselves by building one gender tower after the other – the higher, the more prestigious. Of the 72 family towers, 13 still exist in San Gimignano today, such as the “Torre dei Becci” and the “Torre Grossa”.
The roots of the town of 7,000 souls go back to the Etruscans, who found San Gimignano as early as 300 BC. Populated. The place attracted a lot of attention through the Via Francigena (German: Frankenstrasse), which ran right through the core. Traders stopped on their way to Rome, hospitals, restaurants and accommodation for those passing through were built.
City dispute: Dante Alighieri wanted to mediate
The three old city gates Arco della Cancelleria, Porta Santo Stefano and Arco di Becci today show the places where the original city wall ran. San Gimignano, named after a bishop from Modena, always wanted to step out of the orbit of the center of power in Florence, 50 kilometers away. Conflicts and disputes were inevitable, so that even Dante Alighieri traveled to San Gimignano on a diplomatic mission in 1300. There he officiated as one of six members of the priory, the city’s highest body, and tried to mediate between the warring parties – in vain. Severely weakened by an outbreak of the plague, the city finally came under the protection of Florence in 1352.
Great view from the “Torre Grossa”
If you stroll through the alleys today, past the “Palazzo del Podestà”, “Palazzo Pratellesi” and the castle ruins “Rocca di Montestaffoli”, you can no longer feel the medieval dispute. Right next to the “Palazzo Comunale” it goes up to the “Torre Grossa”. The view is definitely worth the hardship of the ascent. Art lovers will get their money’s worth in the church of Sant’Agostino: Many frescoes decorate the choir and the cloister invites you to take a leisurely stroll.
In between you can take a breather on the staircase that leads to the cathedral and watch the hustle and bustle on the “Piazza del Duomo”. Those who stayed at home are sure to be happy about a bottle of the local wine “Vernaccia di San Gimignano” – cin cin!