The Medicea Fortress: a Siena’s monument, between past and present
Posted on 28. Oct, 2010 by admin in Archive, Culture
Among the various attractions of Siena there is one that rises majestically above surrounding hills: the Medicea Fortress, dumb witness of important tales and events of the city.
Her history begins in a distant past: in 1548, infact, the emperor Carlo V, king that ruled over extended domains in three continents, ordered to his commander to built a fortress.
But the Sienese considered this fortress like an attack against their liberty and autonomy, and in 1552 they have chased away the Spanish from the city and then have destroyed the citadel. In 1561, after the reconquest of Siena, the Grand Duchy Cosimo I de’ Medici ordered to his architect, Baldassarre Lanci, to built a new fortress. His aim was to prevent to Sienese had indipendence.
The Medicea Fortress is an example of XVI century militar architecture: red-brick structure with a rectangular form, leaned on a base surmounted by a huge stringcourse. On the four side there are gigantic wedge-shaped bastions that have in the highest point the Medicea coat of arms in travertine. The architect Lanci, furthermore, changed the primitive “L” form of fortress in the modern square structure.
In the XVIII century the fortress was demilitarized and then turned in a public garden, together with Lizza, a wide area projected by Antonio Matteucci with the famous German gardener Leopoldo Prucher. Symbol of Medici’s power above Siena, the history of this structure lives today inside his spaces, that houses artistic events and prestigious organizations, and in addition is an unusual monument, a destination that will surprise who think of knowing all about Siena.
Is here that Siena Jazz, the National Academy of this music genre, resides; it’s a formative agency, highly-trained, that organizes courses,workshop and concerts. Recommended not only to jazz fans.
In addition, in the northeastern bastions of Fortress, a public institution unique of its kind, the Enoteca Italiana, founded in 1960 to valorize and promote the best wines and wineries. Here we can admire, exhibit as monuments of Italian prestige, more than 1,500 wines, after having been carefully selected by a judging committee, producted by more than 600 wineries. The Enoteca is open from monday to saturday, from 12:00 a.m. to 01:00 a.m.
Tourists can attend to meetings and activities, but above all it’s possible to taste wines and buy them, to bring home a souvenir of Tuscan essence.
Now that the need to defend the city and to exercise a despotic power doesn’t exist, the Medicea Fortress, known also as Fortress S.Barbara, holds the knowledge, the traditions and the virtues that made our identity, like an happy ending story to spread and to pass on.
