Cappella di Piazza

At the foot of the Torre del Mangia, the Cappella di Piazza projects from the Palazzo Pubblico into Piazza del Campo. Built as a votive chapel after the plague of 1348, it combines a fourteenth-century Gothic loggia with a Renaissance crown.

Why it matters

The chapel is a distinctive exception within the carefully defined edge of the Campo. The civic museum records that its construction began in 1352, as Siena commemorated the end of the epidemic and invoked the Virgin's protection.

What to notice

The open loggia rests on four corner pillars; niches and sculptural decoration were added later in the fourteenth century. Its iron gates date from that period. In the 1460s, Antonio Federighi is credited with replacing the original roof with a vaulted loggia and crowning it with griffins. The marble enclosures include a thirteenth-century relief in Pisan style, while Enea Becheroni reworked the front marble in 1846. Sodoma's altar fresco of the Madonna with Christ and God the Father, painted in 1537–39, is now preserved in the Museo Civico.

Context and history

Work on the chapel followed the construction of the Torre del Mangia, begun in 1338. The pillars were completed by 1376; Mariano d'Angelo Romanelli and Bartolomeo di Tommé carved the niche sculpture between 1378 and 1382, with the Saint Bartholomew attributed to Pizzino. The chapel's Renaissance remodelling changed its silhouette while retaining its place at the base of the tower.