Palazzo Cummunale Pinacoteca - San Gimignano - Tuscany

Built in 1288, the Palazzo Comunale of San Gimignano houses the historic headquarters of the Musei Civici. The route of the museum allows the visitor to admire the famous cycles of frescoes that manage to convey to the visitor the civic spirit that had its chosen seat in the palazzo podestarile.

On the first floor is the ancient Sala del Consiglio, also known as Dante's Hall (in memory of the Florentine poet's visit to San Gimignano in 1299 as ambassador of the League of Guelph), with hunting scenes and a tournament dedicated to Charles of Anjou, painted by Azzo di Masetto (around 1290). The room is dominated by the grandiose Maestà by the Sienese artist Lippo Memmi (1317), inspired by the masterpiece painted by his brother-in-law Simone Martini in 1315 in the Sala del Mappamondo in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena.

Then on the second floor of the Palazzo Comunale di San Gimignano are the Camera del Podestà, with its funny profane love scenes, painted by Memmo di Filippuccio between 1303 and 1310, and the halls of the Pinacoteca. Here one can admire the fundamental moments of San Gimignano's artistic patronage: from the Florentine (Coppo di Marcovaldo) and Sienese (Rinaldo) presence in the second half of the 13th century, to the great Sienese season in the second half of the 14th century. From the alternation between Sienesen and Florentines at the beginning of the 14th and 15th centuries (Taddeo di Bartolo, Lorenzo di Niccolò and the "Master of 1419") to the final ascendancy of the Florentines (Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippino Lippi, Sebastiano Mainardi) which contributed to the renaissance renewal of San Gimignano, culminating in the great altarpiece by Pinturicchio, painted in 1511.

From the Pinacoteca it is also possible to reach the Torre Grossa, built between 1300 and 1311, from where one can enjoy a breathtaking view that extends from the town to the surrounding countryside of the Valdelsa, up to the mountains of Pistoia and the Apuane Alps.

Willem Vandenameele