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<--- Back to the first part (Piazza Sant'Agostino).

Piazza del Duomo, is the heart of San Gimignano and its monumental center, is sure one of the more beautiful small squares of Italy. Here face many interesting palaces (palazzo del Podestà, palazzo del Popolo, the Cathedral, the Loggia) and various medieval towers (Rognosa tower, Chigi tower, Grossa tower, the two Salvucci towers) that gives to the city the aspect of a medieval New York.

On the western side, the square is dominated from the Romanesque, 12th century, facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, situated to the end of a beautiful staircase. The inside of the church is with three aisles with a vaulted roof, the walls and the vaults are all frescoed from wonderful frescoes executed between the others by Benozzo Gozzoli, Jacopo della Quercia, Lippo Memmi, Taddeo di Bartolo, Barna da Siena and Bartolo di Fredi.

In the inner facade is a fresco that represents the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Benozzo Gozzoli. Deserve particular attention the frescoes of Barna da Siena that are on the lateral wall of the left aisle and that illustrates the New Testament. At the end of the right aisle is the wonderful Chapel of Santa Fina (1468), masterpiece of the Renaissance work of Benedict and Giuliano da Maiano, remarkable, on the sidewalls of the Chapel, are two frescoes (1475) of Domenico Ghirlandaio. On the left aisle it's another cycle of frescoes of 14th century executed from Bartolo di Fredi and that represent Old Testament.

In the same square, from the opposite side of the Cathedral, it's the Palazzo del Podestà built in 1249 and enlarged in 1337, with a great facade in stone and local brickwork, the palace is dominated from the tower of the Rognosa, 51 meters high, that until the 14th century, it was used like prison. The entrance to the palace is through an enormous vault, call the Loggia, where is a wide entrance-hall, with seats in stone, in bottom to which it's a fresco of the Sodoma (1513), that it represents the Madonna with the Child and the saints Geminiano and Nicholas, there also a main gate that gives access the small Theatre of the Leggieri. Sideways to the Palazzo del Podestà it's the Chigi tower built in 1280. The two twin towers of the Salvucci complete the vision of this part of the square.

The Palazzo del Popolo or Palazzo Nuovo del Podestà, today head office of the Common, is one of the most important monuments in San Gimignano, it rises on the south side of the square of the Cathedral, and was built in 1288 and subsequently enlarged. The entrance to the palace is from the beautiful courtyard of 14th century with frescoes of the Sodoma, from here with an external scale we entered in the Civic Museum, that accommodates paintin of the florentine and sienese schools of the 13th, 14th and 15th century of masters like Coppo di Marcovaldo, Pinturicchio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Niccolò Tegliacci, Taddeo di Bartolo, Guido da Siena, Domenico Michelino and Filippino Lippi. In the museum are also visible the Sala of Dante and the Room of the Podestà, decorated with famous cycles of frescoes like that of Memmo di Filippuccio, inside of the Room of the Podestà, and the scenes of huntings and tournament, attributed to painter Azzo di Masetto and the great Maestà of Lippo Memmi, in the Sala of Dante, the ancient Room of the Council. The visit finishes with the Torre Grossa built in 14th century, the highest of the city (54 meters), from which it's possible to enjoy a panorama that spaces on great part of the Tuscany: from the Apuan Alps, to the Appennino mountains, untill the hills of the Chianti.

Returned in the public square we stop in the three arched Loggia situated at the angle between the piazza del Duomo and piazza della Cisterna, the Loggia has interesting frescoes of 14th century that represents the Madonna with the child, the Archangel and Saint John Baptiste.

The visit continues in Piazza della Cisterna --->