Monteriggioni

«[…] però che, come in su la cerchia tonda
Monteriggion di torri si corona,
così la proda che ‘l pozzo circonda
torregiavan di mezza la persona
li orribili giganti, cui minaccia
Giove del cielo ancora quando tona»
As Monteriggioni crowns its round wall with towers, so the terrible giants, whom Jupiter still threatens from the heavens, when he thunders, turreted with half their bodies the bank that circles the well. (Translated by Poetry in Translation, www.poetryintranslation.com)

With these verses from Dante’s famed Inferno (Canto XXI, lines 40-45) the fairytale-like borgo of Monteriggioni entered history.
The village’s beauty, not to mention its unique character, have not gone unnoticed; video game designers from Ubisoft selected the borgo for the setting of the hugely successful Assassin’s Creed videogame.
Monteriggioni is one of the few medieval borgos completely surrounded by city walls. The Sienese constructed the castle on the order of Mayor Guelfo da Porcari, between 1214 and 1219. The castle was primarily to serve as a defensive outpost for the Republic of Siena. It had an essential position on the Via Francigena, the well-travelled pilgrim path that led all the way to Rome; this strategic position allowed them to control the roads that ran to the city’s archrival, Florence.
Over the centuries Florence and Siena fought many bloody battles for the control of the city; but the city remained always with Siena, until 1554, when it fell to Florence, without a shot being fired. The captain Zeti, an escaped Florentine, sold the town to the Marquis of Marignano, who in 1555 finally defeated the Republic of Siena.
To show the incredible strategic importance of the city, it suffices to say, that Siena remained fiercely independent, until the year after Monteriggioni fell to the Florentines.
The village, in recent years, has regained some of its strategic importance, rejoining the route of the Via Francigena. Stage 32 of this celebratedpilgrims’ route goes from Piazza Roma, Monteriggioni to Siena’s world famous Piazza del Campo. (20.6 km)

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