The origins of Montepulciano

Montepulciano is located on a hilltop (603m) positioned along one of the most important routes between the Valdichiana and the Valdorcia. According to tradition it was founded by the Etruscan king Porsenna in 509 B.C, the primitive nucleus of the castle “Politiano” or “Puliciani” with the parish of Santa Maria grew in the VIII and IX centuries.

Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Montepulciano was frequently caught up in the wars between Siena and Florence for posession of the castles and for dominion over the border country between the two states, this continued until 1261 when the city definitively submitted to rule by the Republic of Siena. Pacts of submission were renewed in 1294 but the city was given an ample statute in 1337 in order to remain subject to the authority of Siena, to which it remained loyal through alternating political events until 1404 when it became a Council of the district of Florence.

Montepulciano ‘Pearl of the 1500s’

From this point on, the political and economic fortunes and the urban and architectural development of the city of Montepulciano began a period of great prosperity and for this reason the city became known as the ‘pearl of the 1500s’. Such developments were due to the rise to power of a class of noble Poliziani politicians and academics of whom Angelo Ambrogini known as the Poliziano, friend and courtesan of Lorenzo il Magnifico (1454-1494), the cardinal Roberto Bellarmino (1542-1621), the Pope Marcello II Cervini (1501-1555), cardinal Ricci, cardinal Antonio Del Monte and others.

These characters, who had strong links with the pontificate and particularly with the Medici family, also influenced the culture of the epoch. They became the protagonists of the architectural renewal of the city of their birth where they called upon the most notable architects of the period such as Antonio da Sangallo il Vecchio, Jacopo Barozzi known as il Vignola, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Ippolito Scalza.

In the 1500s the mediaeval city that had developed within the walls between XII and XIV underwent a significant architectural development.

The palazzi and the churches

An interesting quantity of work is to be found in the Piazza Grande, celebratory and monumental nucleus, where beside the Palazzo Comunale and that of the Capitano del Popolo, are situated the great palazzi Nobili-Tarugi, Contucci Del Monte, and the Duomo.

Intense building activity took place also in the streets of the ordinary citizens. The Poliziano house dating back to the XIV century and reconfigured at the end of the XVI century, the palazzo Bellarmino in via san Donato, the palazzi Ricci and Benincasa in via Ricci, the palazzi Avignonesi, Batignani, Tarugi, Cocconi and Bucelli in Via di Gracciano nel Corso, the palazzi Cervini e Gagnoni (Grugni) in via di Voltaia nel Corso; in addition to numerous public buildings such as the Logge del Grano and the church of Sant’Agostino by Michelozzo, Santa Lucia designed by Flaminio del Turco, Santa Maria delle Grazie by Ippolito Scalza and the Chiesa del Gesù by Andrea Pozzo.