[7] Several significant Mediaeval and Renaissance painters were born and worked in Siena, among them Duccio di Buoninsegna, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Sassetta, and influenced the course of Italian and European art.

[10][11] Siena was an important city in medieval Europe, and its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which contains several buildings from the 13th and 14th centuries.

[9][12] The city is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year in Piazza del Campo.

Supposedly after their father's murder by Romulus, they fled Rome, taking with them the statue of the she-wolf suckling the infants (Capitoline Wolf), thus appropriating that symbol for the town.

[17] The first known document of the Sienese community dates back to 70 AD: the Roman Senator Manlio Patruito reported to Rome that he had been ridiculed with a fake funeral during his official visit to Saena Iulia, a small military colony in Tuscia.

[18] At the end of the third century the city was Christianized by Sant'Ansano, known as the "Baptizer of the Sienese", who was punished by the Roman authorities governing Siena with the test of fire and boiling oil, imprisonment and finally beheading.

During the Middle Ages he was therefore named patron saint of Siena, and the day of his liturgical anniversary came to mark the beginning of the "Contrada Year".

[19][20][clarification needed] Feudal power waned, however, and by the death of Countess Matilda in 1115 the border territory of the March of Tuscany which had been under the control of her family, the Canossa, broke up into several autonomous regions.

[21] Politically, the Republic of Siena was governed by a complex system of councils and magistrates, dominated by powerful noble families who competed for influence and control.

However, internal rivalries often led to factionalism and occasional civil unrest, one of the main challenges faced by many Italian city-states of that period.

[21] Culturally, Siena flourished during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, producing notable artists such as Duccio di Buoninsegna and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

It lived until 31 May 1559 when it was betrayed by the French allies, whom Siena had always supported, concluding with the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis with Charles V, which effectively ceded the Republic to the Medici.

[31] There are 17 wards (contrada): Aquila, Bruco, Chiocciola, Civetta, Drago, Giraffa, Istrice, Leocorno, Lupa, Nicchio, Oca, Onda, Pantera, Selva, Tartuca, Torre, Valdimontone.

The Palio di Siena is a traditional medieval horse race run around the Piazza del Campo twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August.

In 2024 and 2025, an exhibit titled Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350, was held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in London.

The Siena Cathedral Pulpit is an octagonal 13th-century masterpiece sculpted by Nicola Pisano with lion pedestals and biblical bas-relief panels.

The Palazzo Salimbeni, located in a piazza of the same name, was the original headquarters and remains in possession of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, one of the oldest banks in continuous existence in Europe.

Housed in the notable Gothic Palazzo Chigi-Saracini on Via di Città is the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena's conservatory of music.

[34] More than 50 kilometres (31 miles) of the race is run over dirt roads, usually country lanes and farm tracks twisting through the hills and vineyards of the Chianti region.

The finish is on the Piazza del Campo, after a steep and narrow climb on the roughly paved Via Santa Caterina leading into the center of the medieval city.