page_title: Siena
section_title: Main sights
hierarchical_section_title: Siena / Main sights
caption_attribution_description: English: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A., the oldest surviving bank in the world and Italy's third largest bank. Founded in 1472.Italiano: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A., la più antica banca al mondo ancora in attività e la terza banca italiana per dimensione. Fondata nel 1472.
context_page_description: 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. Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year.
context_section_description: The Siena Cathedral (Duomo), begun in the 12th century, is a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque–Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380 with a nave oriented northeast-southwest. A proposed expansion of the eastern transept would have transformed the church into an ambitiously massive basilica, the largest then in the world, with an east-west nave. However, the scarcity of funds, in part due to war and the Black Death, truncated the project. Two walls of this expanded eastern transept remain; through an internal staircase, visitors can climb for a grand view of the city.
  The Siena Cathedral Pulpit is an octagonal 13th-century masterpiece sculpted by Nicola Pisano with lion pedestals and biblical bas-relief panels. The inlaid marble mosaic floor of the cathedral, designed and labored on by many artists, is among the most elaborate in Italy. The Sacristy and Piccolomini library have well preserved Renaissance frescos by Ghirlandaio and Pinturicchio respectively. Other sculptors active in the church and in the subterranean baptistry are Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia and others. The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo contains Duccio's famous Maestà (1308–11) and various other works by Sienese masters. More Sienese paintings are to be found in the Pinacoteca, e.g. 13th-century works by Dietisalvi di Speme.
  The Piazza del Campo, the shell-shaped town square, unfurls before the Palazzo Pubblico with its tall Torre del Mangia. This is part of the site for the Palio horse race. The Palazzo Pubblico, itself a great work of architecture, houses yet another important art museum. Included within the museum is Ambrogio Lorenzetti's frescoes depicting the Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government and also some of the finest frescoes of Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti.
  The Palazzo Salimbeni, located in a piazza of the same name, was the original headquarters and remains in possession of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, one of the oldest banks in continuous existence in Europe.
  Housed in the notable Gothic Palazzo Chigi-Saracini on Via di Città is the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena's conservatory of music.
  Other churches in the city include:
  Basilica dell'Osservanza
  Santa Maria dei Servi
  San Domenico
  San Francesco
  Santo Spirito
  San Martino
  Sanctuary of Santa Caterina, incorporating the old house of St. Catherine of Siena. It houses the miraculous Crucifix (late 12th century) from which the saint received her stigmata, and a 15th-century statue of St. Catherine.
  The historic Siena synagogue is also preserved and open to visitors.
  The city's gardens include the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Siena, a botanical garden maintained by the University of Siena.
  The Medicean Fortress houses the Enoteca Italiana and the Siena Jazz School, with courses and concerts throughout the year, and a festival during the International Siena Jazz Masterclasses.
  In the neighbourhood are numerous patrician villas, some of which are attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi:
  Villa Chigi
  Castle of Belcaro
  Villa Celsa
  Villa Cetinale
  Villa Volte Alte
caption: Piazza Salimbeni.
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