Fortezza Medicea: Siena’s Medici Fortress
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- High
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Spanish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page11 sections
History
The Spanish Cittadella
Fortezza Medicea is a sixteenth-century Italian Renaissance fortress in Siena, Italy, built by the Medici between 1561 and 1563 to suppress renewed rebellion and consolidate their rule. Its predecessor, the Cittadella, had been commissioned in 1548 by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, as an imperial stronghold intended to control Siena and establish Spanish authority in central Italy.
The Cittadella quickly became a source of opposition. During its construction, the imperial ambassador Diego Hurtado de Mendoza arranged for numerous aristocratic tower houses to be shortened so their materials could be used for the fortress. The measure provoked resistance, while the stronghold itself came to represent Spanish domination. Sienese petitions against the project failed.
On 26 July 1552, the Sienese rebelled against the Spanish, besieged the garrison in the unfinished Cittadella, expelled the Spanish from the city, and began demolishing the fortress. During the War of Siena, the conflict in which Siena resisted Spanish and Medici expansion, the Sienese had to reactivate the remaining fortification because it faced the imperial camp and its artillery batteries, which bombarded the city.
Medici construction and control
Siena capitulated on 21 April 1555 after more than a year under siege by Spanish and Medici forces. The Sienese Republic continued its resistance from Montalcino with French support until the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis on 2 and 3 April 1559. Deprived of its allies, Siena surrendered definitively and was assigned to Cosimo de’ Medici, the Florentine ruler whose territorial expansion brought the city under Medici control.
The new fortress reused the site of the Cittadella. Baldassarre Lanci, an architect from Urbino, designed it, and construction began in 1561. The work was complete by 1563. The fortress served as a strategic military post until it was demilitarized toward the end of the eighteenth century under Grand Duke Peter Leopold. The Lizza, the area before the fortress used for military exercises, was then turned into a garden and entered Siena’s public life.
From barracks to public space
Until 1937, the interior remained a barracks. Restoration that year converted it into a public garden, and the fortress remains demilitarized under the ownership of the Municipality of Siena. It now accommodates a wine shop, exhibitions, and cultural events. Siena Jazz has its operational headquarters there and organizes concerts at the site.
Fortezza Medicea has also formed part of Siena’s civic and contrada life. On 17 August 1874, it hosted an unofficial “Palio alla Romana,” a horse race contested by nine Sienese contrade, or traditional civic districts, and won by the Oca. Under the 1730 territorial proclamation of Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, a Bavarian princess who held a governing role in Tuscany, the fortress lies within the territory of the Contrada Sovrana dell’Istrice.
The entrance area includes the Ponte della Vecchia. Its name has been used since the early nineteenth century, after a statue of an old woman from the fountain in Via Pantaneto was moved there when Serafino Belli rebuilt the fountain in 1815. Unknown persons destroyed the fountain in 1829. In the twentieth century, after the Merlin Law closed Siena’s three brothels, Gina Parrini, known as “Batina” and living from 1905 to 1985, continued working near the bridge into old age. The bridge was popularly associated with her for many years, and a memorial plaque dedicated “A Gina” was installed there in 2000.
Remains
Fortifications and layout
Built of stone and brick, the fortress follows the Italian bastioned-front system, a Renaissance method of fortification using projecting platforms to support fire along the enclosing walls. The earlier Cittadella was incorporated into a new design. The first Medici plan included a pincer-like projection forming an enveloping L-shape, intended to make an assault from the direction of the city impracticable. The structure was later transformed into the quadrilateral form visible today.
Corner bastions
Four massive pentagonal bastions occupy the corners of the fortress: San Filippo, San Francesco, San Domenico, and La Madonna. The northern, eastern, and western bastions carry Medici coats of arms in travertine above lion heads, while the southern bastion retains the lion head alone. The sculptures are attributed to the Florentine artist Francesco Camilliani.
Walls and entrance
The inner quadrilateral measures approximately 180 metres in length and 125 metres in width. The outermost points of the bastions form an external quadrilateral about 270 metres long and 200 metres wide, while the total outer perimeter is approximately 1,500 metres. The entrance is on the north-eastern side, near the Lizza gardens, and was formerly protected by a drawbridge.
Broad walkways extend along the inner side of the walls. Their substantial thickness is lined with trees and furnished with benches, creating avenues within the former defensive structure. Beneath the main entrance, the Ponte della Vecchia is associated with the approach to the fortress.
Interior and surroundings
Central performance space
An amphitheatre-shaped structure occupies the central open area. It was created for open-air summer performances and forms a distinct public-use feature within the former military enclosure.
Gardens and adjacent features
The fortress stands near the San Prospero district and beside the Artemio Franchi Stadium. The Lizza gardens lie to its north, the fortress gardens to its south-west, and the south-eastern side faces Siena’s historic centre. A statue of Saint Catherine of Siena, the fourteenth-century Dominican tertiary and patron saint of the city, stands beside the south-eastern side.
