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Piazza del Campo Wheelchair Accessible Tours

Piazza del Campo wheelchair accessible tours is the principal public space and is one of Europe's greatest medieval squares.

Around the piazza are ranged the Palazzo Pubblico, with its Torre del Mangia and various nobles palaces.

Siena disabled Piazza del Campo wheelchair accessible tours was a marketplace established before the XIII century on a sloping site near the meeting point of the three hillside communities that coalesced to form Siena: the Castellare, the San Martino and the Camollia.

Siena may have had earlier Etruscan settlements, but it was not a considerable Roman settlement, and the campo does not lie on the site of a Roman forum, as is sometimes suggested.

History

It was paved in 1349 in fishbone-patterned red brick with nine lines of travertine radiating from the mouth of the gavinone ( the central water drain ) in front of the Palazzo Pubblico.

The number of divisions are held to be symbolic of the rule of The Nine ( Noveschi ) who laid out the campo and governed Siena at the height of its mediaeval splendour between 1292-1355.

It was and remains the focal point of public life in the City.

Siena disabled Piazza del Campo wheelchair accessible tours can start from the accessible piazza, eleven narrow shaded streets radiate into the city.

The noble palaces that line the square, housing the families of the Sansedoni, the Piccolomini and the Saracini etc, have unified rooflines, in contrast to earlier tower houses, emblems of communal strife, such as may still be seen not far from Siena at San Gimignano.

Touring Siena

The unity of these Late Gothic houses is effected in part by the uniformity of the bricks of which their walls are built: brick-making was a monopoly of the commune, which saw to it that standards were maintained.

The Fonte Gaia ( Fountain of Joy ) was set up in 1419 as an endpoint of the system of conduits bringing water to the city's center, replacing an earlier fountain completed about 1342 when the water conduits were completed.

Under the direction of the Committee of Nine, many miles of tunnels were constructed to bring water in aqueducts to fountains and thence to drain to the surrounding fields.

At the foot of the Palazzo Pubblico's wall is the late Gothic Chapel of the Virgin built as an ex voto by the Sienese, after the terrible Black Death of 1348 had ended.

The twice-yearly famous horse-race, The Palio, is held around the edges of the piazza.

Booking & Travel

Piazza del Campo wheelchair accessible tours.

Unmissable visit at it with our Siena Accessible Tours specifically tailored to wheelchair users, reduced mobility persons and disabled with an adapted van.