Porta Fontebranda

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Porta Fontebranda is a city ​​gate in Siena and part of the city ​​walls of Siena .

Exterior facade of the Porta Fontebranda
Interior view of Porta Fontebranda, on the left the chimney and the roof notches of the former customs house

location

The city gate Porta Fontebranda is located in the south-western part of Siena at the end of Via Fontebranda . The street that continues after the city gate is called Via Esterna di Fontebranda . The city gate is located in the third third of the city, Terzo di Città, in the Contrada Oca (goose). It is located in the Vallechiara valley ( better known today as Fontebranda) between the Fontebranda fountain (inside the city walls, still present today) and Fonte Vetrice (outside the city walls, no longer present). The Porta Fontebranda is the lowest point within the Senese city walls, it is 288 m and thus 73 m below the highest point of the city (San Quirico, 361 m) and 32 m below the town hall ( Palazzo Pubblico , 320 m). In the city wall ring is the gate between the Porta San Marco (Porta Laterina excluded as a city gate not accessible from the outside) and the Fortezza Medicea (Fortezza Santa Barbara). The name of the gate is derived from the Fontebranda fountain (Fonte Branda) located approx. 100 m to the north . This was first documented in 1081, but was further north and thus higher than today's fountain. The fountain located at today's location was built by Bellamino from 1193 and was rebuilt in 1246 by Giovanni di Stefano . Further expansion work was carried out in 1296, with two additional arches being added.

construction

The Porta Fontebranda is a secondary city gate and is therefore less fortified than the main gates Porta Romana , Porta Pispini , Porta Ovile and Porta Camollia (which was then provided with the fortress Castellaccia di Camollia and is now only a representative gate). The IHS symbol of St. Bernard of Siena is attached to the outer facade . On the inside (left) was the customs house (Gabelluccio del dazio), of which only the chimney is left today, but the roof can be traced from the notches on the inside of the city wall. There used to be a tower above the gate (called Torrione or Torretta ), which existed until at least the 18th century, but is no longer there today. In front of the city gate there was also a front gate that led to the animal market at the Fonte della Vetrice fountain , also documented as early as 1081. This was at today's parking lot (Parcheggio Santa Caterina). The entrance gate popularly known as Porta Vetrice (the actual Porta Vetrice, also called Porta dei Canonici , was located behind the Hospital Santa Maria della Scala on today's Via del Fosso di Sant'Ansano and was closed in 1313, but formed an entrance to the Fonte fountain della Vetrice) was similar in appearance to the Porta Fontebranda and was called Antiporta di Fontebranda or Porta di Fontebranda esterna . This porch of the city gate directly at the animal market was primarily used for customs and not for military purposes.

history

Panorama of the Vallechia valley with the Porta Fontebranda, on the left the Basilica di San Domenico

The gate was built as part of the third expansion of the medieval city walls to have the important Fontebranda fountain, guarded by armed guards, within the city walls. The second most important fountain in the city at the time next to the Fonte Gaia on Piazza del Campo , with its three basins, served as a water supply for the population (the basin of the main building that is still preserved today), for animal watering (on the left adjacent basin, can still be seen in part) and in the district-based dyers - Gerber and wool Guild (Tintori, Conciatori and Arte del Lana, the third pool, no longer available).

The city gate is mentioned for the first time in 1230 in the household books ( Biccherna ) of the city of Siena, when the bricklayer Giovanni di Galigario was paid. Nineteen years later, a Serafino appears in the documents, who also received money from the city for masonry work. In 1252 the gate was reinforced, but the city walls to the left and right of the gate were not completed until between 1255 and 1257. The fountains of Fontebranda and Fonte della Vetrice were equipped with watering stations in 1259. In 1299 it is listed as Porta di Fonte Branda under the city gates of the Terzo di Città , the Fonte di Vetrice fountain now outside the city walls lost its importance and was in critical condition as early as 1304. The Compagnia Militare di Sant'Antonio from the Church of Sant'Antonio Abate was responsible for guarding the gate around 1355. The church itself was in the area of ​​today's Santuario di Santa Caterina and was demolished in 1939 to make way for the Portico dei Comuni d'Italia .

The city gate gained historical importance when the counterattack was launched from here under Alessandro Politi, which ended the siege of the city by Florence with the Battaglia di Camollia on July 25, 1526. During the siege of Siena (1554–1555) by the Spaniards and Florence, 250 useless mouths (called bocche inutili or bocche disutili ) from Santa Maria della Scala, mostly orphans, were brought out of the city through the Porta Fontebranda on October 5, 1554 . A little later, at the beginning of November 1554, the city gate was walled up and only opened again later.

traffic

The Porta Fontebranda is located within the restricted traffic zone (ZTL - Zone a traffico limitato), so its passage is only permitted with permission.

Trivia

The fountain of Fontebranda was described by Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy (Inferno / Hell, Canto 30, 78) as the most beautiful spring in the world .

photos

  • The city walls with the Porta Fontebranda

  • The city walls with the Porta Fontebranda

  • The IHS symbol of St. Bernard of Siena on the outside of the city gate

  • The eponymous Fontebranda fountain not far north of the city gate

literature

  • Ettore Pellegrini: Fortificare con arte. Mura, porte e fortezze di Siena nella Storia. Betti Editrice, Siena 2012, ISBN 978-88-7576-228-5
  • Emanuele Repetti: SIENA (SENAE, anticamente SAENA) nella Val-d-Arbia. In Dizionario Geografico Fisico Storico della Toscana (1833–1846). Online edition of the University of Siena (pdf, ital.)

Web links

Commons : Porta di Fontebranda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Augusto Codogno: La Porta di Fontebranda.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Ettore Pellegrini: Fortificare con arte. Mura, porte e fortezze di Siena nella Storia.
  3. ↑ Siena. in Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani (1936), accessed May 25, 2014 (Italian)
  4. ↑ SBAP website - Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il Paesaggio (Siena e Grosseto) ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on May 25, 2014 (Italian) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sbap-siena.beniculturali.it
  5. ↑ Illustration of the customs house (Dazio) of Porta Fontebranda at ilpalio.org , accessed on May 29, 2014
  6. ↑ a b Siena Duemila: Com'era Porta Fontebranda.
  7. ↑ image of Paolo Antonio Tanini in the photo library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence , accessed on May 25, 2014
  8. ↑ a b c Emanuele Repetti: SIENA (SENAE, anticamente SAENA) nella Val-d-Arbia.
  9. ↑ Touring Club Italiano : Toscana. Milan 2003, ISBN 88-365-2767-1 , p. 564.
  10. ^ Fabio Bargagli Petrucci: Le fonti di Siena ei loro acquedotti. Note storiche dalle origini fino al MDLV. Siena 1906 ( online version at archive.org ), accessed May 29, 2014 (Italian)
  11. ↑ Palio.Siena .it on the Contrada Oca area , accessed on May 27, 2014 (Italian)
  12. ↑ La contrada dell'Oca e la sua storia ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Official website of the Contrada Oca on the history of the Contrade, accessed on May 27, 2014 (Italian) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.contradadelloca.it
  13. ^ Fausto Landi: Gli ultimi anni della Repubblica di Siena 1525–1555. Edizioni Cantagalli, Siena 1994, p. 195
  14. ^ Maria Ludovica Lenzi: Amor di carità e difesa delle “bocche disutili” negli ultimi mesi dell'assedio di Siena (Agosto 1554 - April 1555). In: Accademia dei Rozzi, Rivista Numero 26 ( online version on the Accademia dei Rozzi website , PDF, accessed on June 6, 2014 (Italian))
  15. ^ Ettore Pellegrini: La caduta della Repubblica di Siena. Part II: la guerra. nuova immagine editrice, Siena 2007, ISBN 88-7145-248-8 , p. 71
  16. ^ Fausto Landi: Gli ultimi anni della Repubblica di Siena 1525–1555. Edizioni Cantagalli, Siena 1994, p. 201
  17. ↑ Wikisource, accessed on May 24, 2014 Divine Comedy (Streckfuß 1876) / Inferno , see also footnote 400

Coordinates: 43 ° 19 ′ 6.9 ″  N , 11 ° 19 ′ 34.8 ″  E