'Sala d'Arte San Giovanni' and 'Rocca di Tentennano', Castiglione d'Orcia
Sienese painting from XIV and XV centuries; a strategic defence point for the old Via Francigena
The San Giovanni art gallery is situated in the fraternity of the same name and conserves paintings done for Castiglione and Rocca d'Orcia by some of the leading figures of the Sienese school of the XIV and XV centuries: Simone Martini, Lorenzo di Pietro called 'il Vecchietta' and Giovanni di Paolo. Alongside these there is a series of liturgical furnishings coming from churches and confraternities of the area.
The 'Rocca' of Tentennano stands on a spur of calcareous rock in the heart of the Val d'Orcia. Built in the XIII century by the Conti Tignosi of Tintinnano in defence of the underlying Via Francigena, it belonged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to the Sienese family of Salimbeni. The impressive fortress, in which Catherine of Siena stayed, had an important strategic function for the control of the southern territory of the ancient Sienese state and at the time of the "War of Siena", it represented one of the cornerstones of the defence system that succeeded in protecting the Sienese Republic, withdrawn to Montalcino, from the imperial assaults. A splendid panorama can be admired from its peak.
