by Alberto Cornice

From Enea Silvio to Pio II

In 1405, in the small settlement of Corsignano to the south of Siena, Enea Silvio Piccolomini was born to a family that was part of the ancient Sienan nobility.

On account of his natural disposition to culture and learning and his intense studies, he became one of the most noted intellectuals and authored numerous erudite works in Latin. His diplomatic career took him to Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, France and Scotland, where he gained precious experience with the courts and cultures of Europe.

He became a priest at the age of 42 and in 1450 he became the bishop of Siena and then Pope from 1458 to 1464: a papacy that despite its short duration was marked by its cultural intensity. His figure has the highest profile of all of the humanist popes of the Renaissance.

From village to city: from Corsignano to Pienza

In 1459 he revisited the village and he was pained to see the dearth and misery. “He established to build in this place a new church and the palazzo, in order to leave a long-lasting monument to his origins”, the ‘non omnis moriar’ of Orazio. It was the counsellor Leon Battista Alberti that suggested an architect, his scholar Bernardo Rossellino. The architectural and urbanistic ‘reform’ of Pio and Rossellino was centred on the Piazza. Pio vigorously lobbied his cardinals to establish a residence here. Only few accepted the invitation.

The Pope gave Corsignano a new name: Pienza, the city of Pio: the seat of a bishop and therefore the right to call itself a city, a status it retains to this day.

The city today

The centre is the Piazza which is overlooked by both Palazzo Piccolomini and the Duomo. The unusual trapeze shape is intentional and significant, in order to establish a dialectical rapport between the constructed space and the natural space, the valley that seems as if it wishes to enter into the Piazza (a century before Michaelangelo’s trapeze shape at the Campidoglio). In the Palazzo Vescovile the Museum Diocesano retains works of the highest level from the 13th century to 17th, the silver of Pio II including the remains of the head of Saint Andrew, and precious pieces in gold from the Vatican Palaces.

For this unique character that demonstrates the clear intent of Pope Pio, today the city of Pienza is defined with emphatic but genuine reverence to the true author of its development as ‘Città d’Autore’.