Val d’Orcia

The aspect of the Orcia Valley reflects the settlement and distribution dynamics of the central Italian population since the Early Middle Ages; from the manorial economic system, the region passed to encastellation when the transit of men and goods was resumed along the Via Francigena, one of the most important routes connecting Rome with the world beyond the Alps. The demographic regression of the period between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century and the construction of houses (with a greater scattering of isolated buildings around the territory) was no longer linked to the medieval fortifications, but started to be more connected with farming activities, from sharecropping to the growing of cereals, vineyards, olive groves and sheep breeding, which required transhumance. It was the theme of the passage, also reflected in the particular phenomenon of sheep transhumance, that symbolically characterised life in the Orcia Valley and gave it a specific value as a place where of exchanges, balance and harmony between men and nature. These lands reached the present shape through the centuries, particularly during the Renaissance, when the valley and its ecclesiastical structures were defined within the framework of a broad “government” project for the territories of the Siena area, in connection with the movements of dioceses and religious orders, in line with the architectural ideals of the time. Another type of passage that can be seen as another essential feature of the valley is the flowing of the river Orcia. Rivers have always identified inhabited lands from material, symbolic and historical perspectives all over the world. Considered as an opportunity or an instrument, sometimes the source of trouble to be faced or a lucky circumstance to be used, the river crosses, can be crossed and allows passage, representing an original and natural movement that accompanies man all the time while he is continuously changing the landscape around.

In the Renaissance, art, as a depiction of reality, chose an excellent subject – the Val d’Orcia – to fix, through the masters of painting, the criteria of an extraordinary natural beauty. Gentle hills like soft dunes, golden expanses of wheat, fields crossed by rows of cypress trees standing against the sky, all give the surrounding landscape a unique personality and chromatic contrasts; the vineyard bordering the shrub at the bottom of the valley, the dirt paths like frames: these are the views that fascinated and bewitched Renaissance artists who were looking for that idealized and mythological nature that could raise the human soul. The rich and splendid horizon of the Orcia Valley became the preferred subject for the Sienese School of Painting, which developed between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries and, through the gradual expression and blossoming of the landscape in painting as a cultural image, gave shape to its character as element provided with its own aesthetic value. In their works, the painters of the Sienese School, including the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini, fixed the traits of the Tuscan landscape, that would become a reference model to depict the beauty of the Italian territory and a unique experience for the history of global art.

The area considered as UNESCO Heritage Site includes towns of the the municipalities of Castiglione d’Orcia, Montalcino, Pienza, Radicofani, and San Quirico d’Orcia.

Although with some etymological uncertainty, we may reach the Etruscan urk (Latin orca, orceus), which was a sort of “jar”, intended as a small stream of water or a brook. Orcia is the river that originates from Mount Cetona and runs through the valley, thus giving it not only its shape, but also its name.

A significant historical event took place in 1328, which greatly affected the Tuscan territory: the exploits of the commander of the Sienese troops, Guidoriccio, who attacked the Castle of Montemassi, in the Maremma region. This event was celebrated with a fresco probably painted by Simone Martini, which is today located in the Sala del Mappamondo in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. The work was completed in 1330 and has been recently studied to establish its attribution with accuracy because there are traces of different hands and remakes. The fresco shows a sumptuous, detailed and realistic landscape, clearly the result of an intention to represent the actual context of the battle and focus on the image of the places rather than simply leaving them on the background. And it is precisely for this specific feature that this work contributed to create the destiny and the importance of the natural landscape in the history of art.

The Sala dei Nove (Hall of the Nine), also called Sala della Pace and della Guerra (Hall of Peace and War), in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, contains the most important cycle of frescoes on the profane themes of the fourteenth century. The artist who made this work is Ambrogio Lorenzetti, who began in 1337 and produced something that acquired value not only in the history of art, but also for the history of political thought, customs and town planning. This impressive iconographic program celebrates the Good Government of the State of Siena with allegorical and simultaneously realistic scenes that describe the constituents of government institutions and their founding and inspiring virtues, represented by anthropomorphic figures. The pleasant life in the city and in the countryside under the Sienese rule is also depicted with the typical medieval dualism between “inside” and “outside” the city walls. In this celebration of the innumerable virtues of the State, the sector dedicated to the agricultural landscape in the fresco called Effects of Good Government in the city and in the country is dominated by the personification of Securitas, security, a winged woman that carries a cartouche where the combination of Good Government, security and the tranquillity of citizens is stated. The representation of medieval daily life in the country conveys the values of order, equilibrium, prosperity, and industriousness, which make up the cultural identity of the Tuscan landscape, still embodied in the Orcia Valley today. Due to this explicit symbolic will, the work contributed to fix the iconography of the Tuscan territory and determine the destiny and the importance of landscape in the history of universal art.

The territory around the castle and the church of Corsignano have been deliberately modified by Pope Enea Silvio Piccolomini with the intention to redesign his native land. The new Bishop’s See was totally remade according to the specifications of Pius II, a member of the Siena aristocracy, who was a humanist pope and felt the urge to play a role, both as individual and in society, in history and in art through physical space, in accordance with the Renaissance principle of seeking harmony between man and architecture. The new city took not only the shape, but also the name of the person who wanted it: in fact, the name of Pienza derives from the name of the pope, Pius.

There is a monastery in the municipality of Montalcino, in the province of Siena, that represents the Tuscan Romanesque architectural style. Initially built around the fourth century, then passed under the Lombards and on through the Carolingian time, the Abbey of Sant’Antimo resisted through the centuries until Pius II, in 1439, suppressed it as religious community. Subsequently, it became the dwelling of a sharecropper and, later on, it was protected and brought to new life from a historical and artistic point of view by the Fine Arts institution with several restoration and requalification projects. Its fame is partly due to the fact that it was used as a set for a film directed by the great master Franco Zeffirelli, who, between 1970 and 1973, shot there a few scenes of the film “Fratello sole, sorella luna” [Brother Sun, Sister Moon] about Saint Francis of Assisi. Only recently, after several hundreds of years, the Bishop of Siena decided to re-establish a community of monks in Sant’Antimo inspired to the order of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine.

Erected in the mid sixteenth century for strategic and military reasons on top of a pre-existing castrum, Rocca d’Orcia, also called Rocca a Tentennano, still dominates the entire valley of the River Orcia. There are many structures built for war purposes, such as towers, strongholds, fortresses, scattered all around the valley to witness the need of small medieval farming villages to defend themselves from enemies.

Radicofani lies on the top of a hill of volcanic origin. Its castle, originally owned by Lombard kings, is the result of several construction projects that began in the eighth century and were completed in 1154 with the work of Pope Adrian IV. Due to its strategic position overlooking the Via Francigena, the village was was fiercely sought after by Siena, the Church and the Empire. In the thirteenth century, it became the hideout of Ghino di Tacco, a sort of Robin Hood of the Orcia Valley, also mentioned by Boccaccio in the Decameron (in Second Story of the Tenth Day).

Built by Diomede Leoni in the sixteenth century, this magnificent park is a fine example of Italian style garden, partly bordered by the walls of the castle. The perfectly geometric box plant flowerbeds, so arranged as to form a big Maltese Cross, enhance the perspective of the garden, which ends with a higher plane consisting of a thick age-old holm-oak English-style wood.

Between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries vine-growing flourished in the Siena area and originated the typical look of the Orcia valley landscape: composite sets of juxtaposed rows of vines along the hillsides and the shrubs of the valley bottom. The renowned tradition of this product is the result not only of the use of peculiar farming techniques, but also of the history of all the related production, technical and commercial features. Many notarial or trade documents in the local language certify the ancient development of vine-growing activities in these lands, which, alongside the most precious and famous Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino, also produce a lighter wine called Acquato or Acquarello, obtained by adding water to the marc of Montalcino grapes (“unam salmam vini et duas salmas aquati”); this product is particularly appreciated by peasants and by the less well-off population groups, especially during the summer for its lower alcohol content and greater freshness to the palate.

The Site, particularly the Castiglione and San Quirico areas, has been globally renowned throughout history for the production of olive oil, the symbol and basis of the Mediterranean diet. But there are more local products that are worthwhile mentioning, for example the salamis, especially those made from Cinta Senese pigs, an ancient swine breed, reported since the Middle Ages, characterised by a dark coat with a white band around the chest and consisting of medium-sized pigs that need to be bred wild. Seasoned cheese is another significant local production that includes the renowned “pecorino di Pienza”, which was probably produced by Etruscans.

Together with his brother Pietro, was one of the most eminent painters of the fourteenth century in Siena. He contributed to the history of art with the naturalism of his characters and the humanity of his subjects, like his representation of the real and natural relationship between mother and child in his Madonnas and Child, but simultaneously with the allegorical value of his works. After working in Florence for a while, he went back to Siena where, between 1338 and 1339, he completed his masterpiece on the three walls of the Sala dei Nove, the Hall of the Nine, in the town hall (Palazzo Pubblico) of the city.

Was a famous painter from Siena, considered as one of the greatest Italian artists of the fourteenth century. He was trained at Duccio di Buoninsegna’s workshop, but was also influenced by Giotto. His works are characterised by a new focus on the plasticity of figures and a realistic smart way of making elements natural. He worked in Siena, in Assisi, at the Court of Robert of Anjou in Naples, and eventually went back to Tuscany for the rest of his life, in Siena, where we married the daughter of his colleague painter Memmo di Filippuccio.

La strada tortuosa che da Siena conduce all’Orcia,

traverso il mare mosso

di crete dilavate

che mettono di marzo una peluria verde

è una strada fuori del tempo, una strada aperta

e punta con le sue giravolte al cuore dell’enigma.

Reale o irreale, solare o notturna –

assorti ne seguivano

il lungo saliscendi

di padre in figlio i miei vecchi con un presagio di tormento.

Reale o irreale, solare o notturna –

interroga negli anni

la mente – e l’idea di vita le si screzia

d’un volto doppio imprevedibile –

interroga il pianeta duro della landa,

i poggi bruciati, le sparse rocche.

E il vento, non so se dal tempo o dallo spazio che frusta il sangue.

Pensieri tirati sulla corda

d’un interrogazione senza fine

non lasciano vivere, non hanno risposta.

Lo intende bene lei passata da quelle dune.

Mario Luzi, “Su fondamenti invisibili”, 1971

Siena is located a few dozens of kilometres from the Orcia Valley, which lies to the south-east of the city and today belongs to the territory of the Province of Siena. A wealthy and refined medieval city, a prominent financial centre and a place of exuberant artistic production that left an indelible mark, Siena has been constantly linked to the Orcia Valley throughout its history as the countryside supplied food and precious goods for the abundant trade activities that were linked to the transit of merchants, pilgrims and soldiers along the Via Francigena, the ancient road that brought so much prosperity to both towns and the countryside. After the second half of the sixteenth century, the Val d’Orcia passed under the influence of Florence with the entire Sienese territories.

Pienza belongs to the Val d’Orcia, but its old town centre has been recognised as a World heritage Site along because it represents a unique example of ideal Renaissance town. Being enframed in a picturesque landscape like the Orcia Valley makes Pienza a monumental jewel of absolute artistic perfection, as the rural context and the urban features wisely reflect and complement each other.

Bagno Vignoni e le sue acque, Grafiche Nencini – Comune San Quirico d’Orcia.

Montalcino a cura del Consorzio del Brunello, Edizioni Cantagalli, 1987.

M. Bezzini, Storia della Via Francigena. Dai Longobardi ai Giubilei, Edizioni Il Leccio, 1998.

A. Cortonesi (a cura di), La Val d’Orcia nel Medioevo e nei primi secoli del’età moderna, “Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi storici, Pienza 15-18 settembre 1988”, Viella, Roma, 1990.

A. de Bellis, Il cacio pecorino tra storia e tradizioni, Editori del Grifo Italia, 1982.

F. Pellegrini e M. Montori, Viaggio a piedi nelle Crete Senesi a Montalcino alla Val d’Orcia, Editrice Grafica l’Etruria, 1989.

M. Pistoi, Guida archeologica della Val d’Orcia, Editrice Don Chisciotte, 1997.

K. Singleton, Montalcino e Montepulciano, Val d’Orcia e dintorni, Edizioni Slow Food, 2001.

P. Torriti, Pienza, la città del Rinascimento italiano, Sagep, 1985.

whc.unesco.org/en/list/1024/

www.unesco.beniculturali.it

www.parcodellavaldorcia.com/

The aspect of the Orcia Valley allows us to study how central Italy was populated since the Early Middle Ages. The region passed from manorialism to encastellation when the transit of men and goods was resumed along the Via Francigena, one of the most important road axes between Rome and the rest of Europe. A demographic regression took place between the fourteenth century and the fifteenth centuries and the construction of houses (with a greater scattering of isolated buildings) was no longer linked to the medieval fortifications, but started to be more connected to the farming activities of sharecropping, the growing of cereals, vineyards, olive groves and sheep breeding, which required the displacements of transhumance.

Some of the elements that charmed and bewitched Renaissance artists who were seeking that beautiful idealized and mythological Nature are: the gentle hills like soft dunes, golden expanses of wheat, fields crossed by rows of cypress trees standing against the sky, all give the surrounding landscape a unique personality and chromatic contrasts, the vineyards besides sunflower fields, dirt paths like frames. The rich and splendid horizon of the Orcia Valley became the preferred subject for the Sienese School of Painting, which developed between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries. The painters of the Sienese School, including the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini, fixed the traits of the Tuscan landscape in their works and made them a reference model of the beauty of the Italian territory – a unique experience for the history of global art.

The geographical area covered b ythe UNESCO recognition includes the historical centres of Castiglione d’Orcia, Montalcino, Pienza, Radicofani, San Quirico d’Orcia and most of the territory of the five municipalities included in the Val d’Orcia Natural Artistic and Cultural Park.

In 1328, the commander of the Sienese troops, Guidoriccio, attacked the Castle of Montemassi, in the Maremma region. His exploits are depicted in the work attributed to Martini (1330) in the Sala del Mappamondo (Hall of the Globe) in the Siena town hall called Palazzo Pubblico. The fresco shows a detailed landscape.

The Sala dei Nove (Hall of the Nine), also called Sala della Pace and della Guerra (Hall of Peace and War), in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena, contains the most important cycle of frescoes on profane themes of the fourteenth century. The artist who made this work is Ambrogio Lorenzetti, who began in 1337 and produced a work that acquired a great value not only in the history of art, but also for the history of political thought, customs and town planning. The frescoes celebrate the Good Government of the State of Siena with allegorical and simultaneously realistic scenes, but also depict the pleasant life in the city and in the countryside under the rule of Siena. The representation of medieval daily life in the country conveys the values of order, equilibrium, prosperity and industriousness, which make up the cultural identity of the Tuscan landscape, still embodied in the Orcia Valley today.

The territory around the castle and church of Corsignano was modified by Pope Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pius II, who wanted to transform his native village deom a little rural town to an ideal city. The village was therefore completely rebuilt according to the humanist ideals of Pius II to re-establish harmony between man and the natural world. The new city was called after the Pope himself (Pius > Pienza).

There is a monastery in the municipality of Montalcino, in the province of Siena, that represents the Tuscan Romanesque architectural style. The great film director Franco Zeffirelli shot a few scenes of his movie “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”, about Saint Francis of Assisi, between 1970 and 1973. A community of monks has been recently re-established in the sacred complex.

Erected in the mid sixteenth century for strategic and military reasons on top of a pre-existing castrum, Rocca d’Orcia, also called Rocca a Tentennano, still dominates the entire Orcia valley. Many war structures such as towers, strongholds, and fortresses are scattered all around the territory to witness the need of small medieval farming villages to defend themselves from enemies.

Although its etymology remains partly uncertain, we may mention the Etruscan urk (Latin orca, orceus), which meant “jar”, intended as a small stream of water or a brook. Orcia is the river that originates from Mount Cetona and runs through the valley, thus giving it its name.

Vine growing flourished in the Siena area between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, thus originating the genuinely typical landscape of the Orcia Valley. Besides the most famous and precious Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino wines, the Montalcino grapes also give a light wine called Acquato or Acquarello, that is obtained by adding water to the marc, particularly appreciated by peasants.

The area of the Recognised Site is also traditionally famous around the world for the production of olive oil, the symbol and basis of the Mediterranean diet, particularly in the areas of Castiglione and San Quirico. Other excellent local produces are the salamis, especially those made from pigs of the Cinta Senese wild breed, characterised by a dark coat with a white band around the chest.

Radicofani lies on the top of a volcanic hill. Its castle, originally owned by Lombard kings, is the result of several construction steps that began in the eighth century and were completed in the mid twelfth century. Due to its strategic position controlling the Via Francigena, it was fiercely sought after by Siena, the Church and the Empire. In the thirteenth century, it became the hideout of Ghino di Tacco, a sort of local Robin Hood, also mentioned in his Decameron by Boccaccio (Second Story, Tenth Day).

Bult by Diomede Leoni in the sixteenth century, this magnificent park is a fine example of Italian style garden, partly bordered by the castle walls. The perfectly geometric box plant flowerbeds, so arranged as to form a big Maltese Cross, enhance the perspective of the garden, which ends with a higher plane consisting of a thick age-old holm-oak English-style wood.

Together with his brother Pietro, was one of the most eminent painters of the fourteenth century in Siena. He contributed to the history of art with the naturalism and humanity of his characters, an example of which is the real and natural relationship between mother and child he depicted in his Madonnas and Child, even thourh he simultaneously filled his works with allegorical meanings. After working in Florence, he went back to Siena where, between 1338 and 1339, he completed his masterpiece on the three walls of the Sala dei Nove, the Hall of the Nine, in the town hall (Palazzo Pubblico) of the city.

Was a famous painter from Siena, considered as one of the greatest Italian artists of the fourteenth century. His works are characterised by a new focus on the plasticity of figures and a realistic smart way of making elements natural. He worked in Siena, in Assisi, at the Court of Robert of Anjou in Naples, and eventually went back to Tuscany for the rest of his life, in Siena, where we married the daughter of his colleague painter Memmo di Filippuccio.

Siena is located a few dozens of kilometres from the Orcia Valley, which lies to the south-east of the city and today belongs to the territory of the Province of Siena. A wealthy and refined medieval city, a prominent financial centre and a place of exuberant artistic production that left an indelible mark, Siena has been constantly linked to the Orcia Valley throughout its history as the countryside supplied food and precious goods for the abundant trade activities that were linked to the transit of merchants, pilgrims and soldiers along the Via Francigena, the ancient road that brought so much prosperity to both towns and the countryside. After the second half of the sixteenth century, the Val d’Orcia passed under the influence of Florence with the entire Sienese territories.

Pienza belongs to the Val d’Orcia, but its old town centre has been recognised as a World heritage Site along because it represents a unique example of ideal Renaissance town. Being enframed in a picturesque landscape like the Orcia Valley makes Pienza a monumental jewel of absolute artistic perfection, as the rural context and the urban features wisely reflect and complement each other.

Manorialism: feudal organization model of production where plots of land tilled by peasants were grouped around the manor house, inhabited by the landowner and lord. This economic system was common in the early medieval period.

Regression, name:  backward movement whereby previously achieved statuses or positions are partly lost.

Transhumance, name: rural practice of moving livestock between higher pastures in the summer down to winter shelters in the plains on a seasonal basis.

Chromatic, adj.: concerning colour.

Mythological, adj.: relating to, based on, or appearing in myths or mythology. Set of traditional tales of a people, characterised by fantastic narrative concerning gods, heroes, and natural elements.

Allegorical, adj.: symbolic representation of an abstract concept, including through personification.

Plasticity, name:  capacity of taking and changing shapes.

Profane, adj.:  anything that is not sacred and expresses non-religious subjects. The contrary of ‘religious’.

Sharecropping, name: a contract by which the owner of land con and a sharecropper, an independent peasant, agree on how to manage a farm and conduct all related activities by sharing profits and products. The owner made available the farm with all the tools and equipment and the farmhouse, while the sharecropper tilled the land with his family, living permanently in that farmhouse and taking care of the farm.