The Sienese town hall, the Palazzo Pubblico, is situated in the city's main square, The Piazza del Campo. The Palazzo with its strict regularity of its architectural elements combined with the fan-like semicircular space of the Campo constitute the centre of the secular area of the city.
Functions
The mass of the building in a large open space with its nearly hundred metres tall tower, Torre del Mangia, offers a dramatic contrast with the densely built up area with narrow streets trickling from the Campo. Various civic functions are contained within this single structure.
The exterior conveys a sense of a structurally unified entity, while the interior is divided into functionally separate sections. The plan incorporates public ceremonial areas, state offices, treasury, judicial and military quarters, residential quarters and storage rooms.
Architectural Regulations in Siena
The distinct functions of the individual parts of the structure are expressed in different ways that became a set standard for architectural programme of the city of Siena as a whole. This practice of following regulations was established along with the first plans for the town hall in 1297.
A regulation from that year ordered that the houses facing the Campo must have windows with columns, either triforate or biforate, following the model of the Palazzo, and no balconies. The constitution of 1309-10 ruled that all new buildings around the Campo are to have arches, and front facades walled in brick.
Adopting Palatial Architecture to Express Civic Identity
The facade of the Palazzo is built of brick, a typical building material of Siena, with open arches on the ground floor. The architectural composition is similar to that of the palaces of magnates. This implies an effort to preserve the tradition by using a traditional material and at the same time to express magnificence by using the architectural language of magnatial power.
The grandeur is enhanced by the massive brick tower topped by battlements. The facade and inner spaces also carry palatial qualities by featuring pointed-arched triforate windows and semicircular biforate windows.
Siena's Architecture and Economy
The originally two-storeyed complex of the Palazzo consists of the central section, the torrione, the right wing of the Council of Nine, the left wing of the Chief magistrate - the Podesta, and the rearward extension to the left wing connected to the main body of the building by a bridge.The central torrione contained a grand vaulted hall housing the treasury, the Biccherna, and offices of the four Provveditori, overseers of finances. Location of the principal financial offices in the central part indicates the crucial role of trade in the city's life.
The Palazzo Pubblico itself stored supplies of one of the most important article of the local economy, salt, in its vaulted space that provided substructure to the front part of the building. To the left of the central torrione there is a passage connecting the Campo with the Piazza del Mercato providing a direct link between the market place and public administration.
The external architectural feature that indicates close association with the tradition of trading is the decorative blind arcade running across the facade on the ground level, imitating open arcades of public buildings where trading activities took place. The first floor of the central section cpontained The Sala del Consiglio, the room of the legislative body, placed symbolically over the treasury, the city's economy thus guarded and governed by civic rule.
All these elements can be seen as evidence of cooperation between the communal government of Siena and the city's trading practice, the combiantion of these resulting in Siena's prosperity.
Sources:
- Diana Norman: Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280-1400, Yale University Press, 1995
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