Monteriggioni
Encyclopedia
Monteriggioni is a comune
in the Province of Siena
in the Italian
region Tuscany
. It borders on the communes of Casole d'Elsa
, Castellina in Chianti
, Castelnuovo Berardenga
, Colle di Val d'Elsa
, Poggibonsi
, Siena
and Sovicille
. The town is architecturally and culturally significant; it hosts several piazzas, is referenced in Dante Alighieri
's Divine Comedy, and has appeared in Ubisoft
's Assassin's Creed II
and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
Province of Tuscany - built by the Sienese in 1213 as a front line in their wars against Florence, by assuming command of the Cassia Road running through the Val d'Elsa and Val Staggia to the west. Monteriggioni, which sits in the center of the Comune of Monteriggioni (an approximate 19.49 km² area around the town), is located fifteen kilometers from the Province's capital.
During the conflicts between Siena and Florence
in the Middle Ages (in which Florence was seeking to expand territory), the city was strategically placed as a defensive fortification. It also withstood many attacks from both the Fiorentini
and forces controlled by the Bishop of Volterra. Eventually the Sienese were able to place control of the town's garrison to Giovannino Zeti, who had been exiled from Florence. In 1554, in an act of reconciliation with the Medicis, Zeti simply handed the keys of the town over to the Medicean forces - considered a "great betrayal" by the town's people.
The roughly circular walls, totalling a length of about 570 meters and following the natural contours of the hill, were built between 1213 and 1219. There are fourteen towers on square bases set at equidistance, and two portals or gates. One gate, the Porta Fiorentina opens toward Florence to the north, and the other, the Porta Romana, faces Rome to the south. The main street within the walls connects the two gates in a roughly straight line.
The main piazza, the Piazza Roma, is dominated by a Romanesque
church with a simple, plain facade. Other houses, some in the Renaissance style (once owned by local nobles, gentry and wealthy merchants) facing into the piazza. Off the main piazza smaller streets give way to public gardens fronted by the other houses and small businesses of the town. In more hostile times, these gardens provided vital sustenance when enemies gathered without.
used the turrets of Monteriggioni to evoke the sight of the ring of giants encircling the Infernal
abyss.
Its modern claim to fame in the English-speaking world is mainly through Monteriggioni's featured appearance in Ubisoft
's 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II
, where the player is able to explore and interact with the town and its landmarks as of the 15th-century, and again in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
before it is besieged and razed in the first week of 1500 by Cesare Borgia
's army (based on some disputed historical accounts); Brotherhood also features a fictional version of Monteriggioni as of 2012. It is also featured as a setting for the multiplayer mode. The city bears little resemblance to the city depicted in Assassin's Creed. It also appears as a playable siege map in Firefly Studios
' 2001 computer game Stronghold.
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
in the Province of Siena
Province of Siena
The Province of Siena is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena.It has an area of 3,821 km² , and a total population of 252,288 . There are 36 comuni in the province...
in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
region Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. It borders on the communes of Casole d'Elsa
Casole d'Elsa
Casole d'Elsa is a comune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 50 km southwest of Florence and about 25 km west of Siena.-Main sights:...
, Castellina in Chianti
Castellina in Chianti
Castellina in Chianti is a comune of c. 2,800 inhabitants in the province of Siena, in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 35 km south of Florence and about 15 km northwest of Siena...
, Castelnuovo Berardenga
Castelnuovo Berardenga
Castelnuovo Berardenga is a comune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 50 km southeast of Florence and about 14 km east of Siena...
, Colle di Val d'Elsa
Colle di Val d'Elsa
Colle di Val d'Elsa or Colle Val d'Elsa is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Siena.It has a population of c. 20,000...
, Poggibonsi
Poggibonsi
Poggibonsi is a town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy. It is the main centre of the Valdelsa Valley.-History:The area around Poggibonsi was already settled in the Neolithic age, although the first traces of civilisation dates from Etruscan-Roman age, attested by a series of necropolises and...
, Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
and Sovicille
Sovicille
Sovicille is a comune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 60 km south of Florence and about 10 km southwest of Siena....
. The town is architecturally and culturally significant; it hosts several piazzas, is referenced in Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's Divine Comedy, and has appeared in Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
's Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed II is a historical third-person action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is the second video game installment of the Assassin's Creed series, and is a sequel to the 2007 video...
and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
History
Monteriggioni is a medieval walled town, located on a natural hillock, in the SienaSiena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
Province of Tuscany - built by the Sienese in 1213 as a front line in their wars against Florence, by assuming command of the Cassia Road running through the Val d'Elsa and Val Staggia to the west. Monteriggioni, which sits in the center of the Comune of Monteriggioni (an approximate 19.49 km² area around the town), is located fifteen kilometers from the Province's capital.
During the conflicts between Siena and Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in the Middle Ages (in which Florence was seeking to expand territory), the city was strategically placed as a defensive fortification. It also withstood many attacks from both the Fiorentini
Fiorentini
The Fiorentini are a noble Italian family from the Valsugana.Engineer Filippo Fiorentini founded the Fiorentini & C. S.p.A. factory of excavators in 1919 in Rome, Italy. He imported and distributed construction equipment. During the time of Fascism, restrictions banned import and Ing...
and forces controlled by the Bishop of Volterra. Eventually the Sienese were able to place control of the town's garrison to Giovannino Zeti, who had been exiled from Florence. In 1554, in an act of reconciliation with the Medicis, Zeti simply handed the keys of the town over to the Medicean forces - considered a "great betrayal" by the town's people.
Architecture
The money Monteriggioni made went to making the town better. Both Monteriggioni's exterior walls and the buildings within are some the best preserved in all of Italy, attracting tourists, architects, medieval historians and archaeologists. "The town appears to float above the valley at night due to the hillside walls and towers being lit from below with light" tourists say.The roughly circular walls, totalling a length of about 570 meters and following the natural contours of the hill, were built between 1213 and 1219. There are fourteen towers on square bases set at equidistance, and two portals or gates. One gate, the Porta Fiorentina opens toward Florence to the north, and the other, the Porta Romana, faces Rome to the south. The main street within the walls connects the two gates in a roughly straight line.
The main piazza, the Piazza Roma, is dominated by a Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
church with a simple, plain facade. Other houses, some in the Renaissance style (once owned by local nobles, gentry and wealthy merchants) facing into the piazza. Off the main piazza smaller streets give way to public gardens fronted by the other houses and small businesses of the town. In more hostile times, these gardens provided vital sustenance when enemies gathered without.
Cultural significance
The Tuscan poet Dante AlighieriDante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
used the turrets of Monteriggioni to evoke the sight of the ring of giants encircling the Infernal
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
abyss.
Its modern claim to fame in the English-speaking world is mainly through Monteriggioni's featured appearance in Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
's 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed II is a historical third-person action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is the second video game installment of the Assassin's Creed series, and is a sequel to the 2007 video...
, where the player is able to explore and interact with the town and its landmarks as of the 15th-century, and again in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a historical third person, stealth action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2010, Microsoft Windows in March 2011 and Mac OS X in May 2011...
before it is besieged and razed in the first week of 1500 by Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia , Duke of Valentinois, was an Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia; Giovanni Borgia , Duke of Gandia; and Gioffre Borgia , Prince of Squillace...
's army (based on some disputed historical accounts); Brotherhood also features a fictional version of Monteriggioni as of 2012. It is also featured as a setting for the multiplayer mode. The city bears little resemblance to the city depicted in Assassin's Creed. It also appears as a playable siege map in Firefly Studios
Firefly Studios
Firefly Studios is a computer game developer that has offices in London, England and Canton, Connecticut, with a QA department in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Company was formed in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, Eric Ouellette and David Lester who had worked together on numerous titles such as the...
' 2001 computer game Stronghold.