Monteriggioni: Dante's Ring of Towers

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A perfectly circular walled castle on a hill north of Siena, thrown up in the 1210s and never taken by force. Dante saw its towers as giants standing in a ring — and the wall-walk is still the reason to come.

Status: Living village and ticketed monument. Wall-walk (camminamento) partially open; the “Monteriggioni in Arme” museum is open. Information checked 5 August 2026 — reconfirm hours and prices before visiting.

At a Glance

Monteriggioni is a small circular walled village on the hill of Monte Ala, north of Siena, built by the Republic of Siena in the early 13th century as a frontier fortress against Florence. Its wall circuit of 570 metres, punctuated by fourteen projecting towers — fifteen if the internal tower is counted — is one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in Tuscany, and it gave Dante one of the most famous images in the Inferno. The historic centre is tiny — one main street between two gates, a church and a piazza — and it has been spared modern building inside the walls.

Location and Setting

Monteriggioni sits on Monte Ala, a low hill of 274 metres in the Val d’Elsa, within the Montagnola Senese, a short distance north of Siena. The comune is large and spread across numerous hamlets, but the famous walled village at its heart is minuscule, and most of the comune’s residents live elsewhere. The surrounding countryside is classic inland Tuscany: vineyards, olive groves and oak woodland, with the walls visible from a distance rising above the fields.

The village was placed to command the medieval Via Francigena and the roads towards Florence — the strategic reason the Republic of Siena built it here. Today the Via Francigena still passes directly beneath the walls.

• By car: reached from the Firenze–Siena motorway link, “Monteriggioni” exit
• From Siena: roughly 15–18 km, about 20 minutes by car
• Nearest railway station: Castellina in Chianti–Monteriggioni, at Castellina Scalo, a few kilometres away

Did you know? The Monteriggioni everyone photographs is only a fragment of the comune of the same name — a walled circle inside a much larger municipality.

History

Monteriggioni was built by the Republic of Siena between 1214 and 1219 (a number of accounts give 1213–1219, and an inscription on the Porta Romea records the walls being raised from 1213). Building a castle essentially from scratch was a novelty in Sienese expansion, which had previously bought existing castles. The circular line of the walls simply followed the natural contour of the hill, and the fortress was ringed not by a water moat — impossible on a hilltop — but by carbonaie, ditches filled with charcoal and wood that could be set alight to repel attackers.

The village’s whole purpose was military: to watch and block the approaches to Siena from Florence. Florentines and Sienese fought over it in the 13th century, and after the battle of Colle in 1269 the defeated Sienese took refuge here while the Florentines besieged it in vain. In 1526 a Florentine force with papal allies besieged Monteriggioni with artillery; the walls held, and the siege was broken after the Sienese victory at the battle of Camollia in July that year. Over the following century the towers were lowered and earth was banked against the walls to resist artillery.

The end came not by force but by betrayal. In 1554, during the war of Siena, the captain of the garrison, Giovannino Zeti, surrendered the fortress without a fight to the imperial-Florentine forces. Siena itself fell in 1555. The Comune di Monteriggioni's own history gives the date precisely as 27 April 1554, recording that the castle was handed over by treachery, without a fight, to the Marchese di Marignano, commander of the imperial troops. A competing account, resting on the eyewitness chronicler Alessandro Sozzini, places the capture at the end of August 1554; the conflict is unresolved in the published record.

The walls were substantially restored in the early 20th century, with the reconstruction of towers that had been cut down in earlier centuries. Part of the wall-walk was made accessible to visitors in the mid-2000s.

Did you know? Local legend says captain Zeti’s ghost still wanders a hidden tunnel from the well in the main square, unable to find peace after his betrayal.

The Dante Connection

Monteriggioni owes much of its fame to six lines in Canto XXXI of Dante’s Inferno. As Dante and Virgil approach the pit that separates the eighth circle of Hell from the ninth, Dante makes out huge shapes in the gloom and takes them for towers; Virgil explains they are the giants standing around the rim of the well, sunk into it from the waist down. To convey the image, Dante compares the way the giants ring the pit to the way Monteriggioni “crowns itself with towers” along its round wall.

The reference matters because it fixes Monteriggioni in the literary imagination at the height of its medieval reputation, when the towers stood taller than they do now. The line is used locally to this day: the annual medieval festival takes its name directly from Dante, a stone plaque outside the Florentine gate carries the quotation, and the main square inside the walls is now named after Dante.

Did you know? Dante saw the towers when they were higher than today: several were later cut down for artillery defence, so the “crown” he described was taller than the one visitors see now.

The Walls and Towers

The wall circuit runs for about 570 metres around the crown of the hill, roughly elliptical in plan and about 2 metres thick, following the natural line of the summit. The towers measure 6 by 4 metres in plan and rise about 15 metres above the wall. The circuit carries fourteen projecting towers, or fifteen including one internal tower, depending on which official record is followed.

Note on counts and heights. Official sources differ: the Art Bonus record, carrying the Comune's text, gives fifteen towers including one internal; the Fondazione Musei Senesi gives fourteen projecting from the outer curtain. Neither supports the widely repeated claim that only eleven now stand at full height, and that figure is not asserted here. The Comune records only that towers cut down in earlier centuries were rebuilt in the restoration of the 1920s and 1930s. No official overall wall height exists: the 15 m figure describes the towers’ elevation above the walls, not the walls themselves.

There are two gates, at opposite ends of the single through-street:

• Porta Franca, also called Porta Romea, facing south-east towards Siena and Rome — today the main entrance, set at the base of a tower
• Porta Fiorentina, also called Porta San Giovanni, facing towards Florence
• A third gate, on the south-west side, was walled up in later centuries

The wall-walk open to visitors is not a continuous ring but raised walkways near the gates, built in the mid-2000s. At the time of checking only a section of the south side is open; the south walkway looks out over the Chianti, the north over the Val d’Elsa.

Did you know? The wall-walk visitors climb today is a modern reconstruction, built in the spirit of the medieval sentry-walk that once ran along the top of the walls.

Inside the Village

Inside the walls the village is essentially a single street running between the two gates, opening into the main square, with a well at its centre. Facing the square is the church of Santa Maria Assunta, a Romanesque building begun around the foundation of the village and completed by 1235 — and it was inside this church, in June 1235, that the delegates of Siena and Poggibonsi accepted peace terms with the Florentines. It is a simple single-nave stone building with a gabled facade and a portal under a stone arch; the interior was remodelled in the modern era and the bell-tower is 18th-century.

The other visitor attraction inside the walls is the “Monteriggioni in Arme” educational path, entered from the tourist office on the main square. It occupies four rooms, each dedicated to a century of the fortress’s history between the 13th and 16th centuries, with faithful reproductions of medieval and Renaissance arms and armour, models illustrating siege techniques, and the option of handling and trying on some pieces.

Otherwise the village is deliberately unspoiled: no significant later building has filled the interior, which keeps a buffer of open space between the houses and the walls. There are a few restaurants, wine shops and craft shops serving visitors.

Did you know? In 1235 the peace between Siena, Poggibonsi and the Florentines was formally accepted inside the little church of Santa Maria Assunta — diplomacy conducted within the fortress it was built to defend.

Events

The village’s signature event is the Festa Medievale di Monteriggioni, held each July: a medieval banquet followed by three days when the streets fill with theatre, music, itinerant performers, re-enactors of old trades and medieval taverns. In 2026 the festival runs from 9 to 12 July.

• Festival admission 2026: full €8; reduced €5; free for under-10s, Monteriggioni residents and disabled visitors
• Advance tickets via the festival’s official channels; banquet booking through the tourist office

Beyond the medieval festival, the village hosts a summer programme of concerts, theatre and cultural evenings, and a traditional torch-lit procession along the Via Francigena to Abbadia a Isola.

Did you know? The festival runs its own medieval currency: visitors change euros for period “coins” to spend in the taverns and stalls inside the walls.

The Wider Comune

• Abbadia a Isola — a former Benedictine monastery a few kilometres from Monteriggioni, founded in the early 11th century on a strip of dry ground in what was then a marsh, directly on the Via Francigena. It houses the MAM archaeological museum, included in the combined ticket
• Strove — an ancient hamlet with a simple gabled pieve, on the road between Monteriggioni and Abbadia a Isola
• Castello della Chiocciola — a fortified house nearby, named for the spiral staircase in its cylindrical tower
• Via Francigena stages: San Gimignano–Monteriggioni, and Monteriggioni–Siena

Did you know? Abbadia a Isola takes its name — “abbey on the island” — from its position on a patch of dry land that rose like an island out of a marsh, later drained.

Practical Information

Checked 5 August 2026. Reconfirm on the official tourism site or with the Comune before travelling.

Wall-walk and museum. Visited on a single combined ticket, which also covers the MAM archaeological museum at Abbadia a Isola. At the time of checking only a section of the south wall-walk is open; the museum is fully open. Opening times and the seasonal timetable vary through the year — check the current-season hours before visiting.

Prices: not stated here. The walls and museum are ticketed, with reductions for groups of 15 or more, pilgrims carrying a credential, over-65s and student-card holders on non-holiday weekdays, and free entry for accompanied children under 8, Monteriggioni residents, guides and teachers with organised groups, and disabled visitors with one companion. The tariff itself we could not confirm: the official tourism site's certificate does not validate, and we will not bypass that to read a price. Check at the ticket office.

Parking. Two main car parks serve the village. The Castello car park is about 50 m from the village, cars only, charged 08:00–20:00, with the first 10 minutes free. The Cipressino car park is about 250 m from the walls, with camper and coach spaces, charged 08:00–20:00 and partly free. A free car park is also available near the school, about 500 m away.

Getting there from Siena. - By car: the Firenze–Siena motorway link to the “Monteriggioni” exit; about 20 minutes - By bus: public transport is operated by Autolinee Toscane. Not all runs stop near Monteriggioni; the nearest stops are about 500 m on foot from the castle. Buy tickets from authorised resellers, via the operator’s app, or contactless on board

Accessibility. Access is limited for visitors with reduced mobility. The wall-walks are reached by steps and have no lifts, so they are not wheelchair-accessible. The “Monteriggioni in Arme” path is equipped with a stair-lift and is accessible to people with mobility difficulties. The village streets are cobbled and there is a short climb up to the gates from the car parks.

Best times to visit. The village can be walked in well under an hour and gets busy on holidays and summer weekends. Early morning or late afternoon on a weekday, and the shoulder seasons, give the calmest experience. The medieval festival in July is the busiest and most atmospheric time.

The Via Francigena. Monteriggioni is the end of the San Gimignano–Monteriggioni stage and the start of the Monteriggioni–Siena stage, which runs about 18–20 km from the main square to Piazza del Campo through the woods of the Montagnola Senese, entering Siena at Porta Camollia. There is little water or food on the second half, so carry water. Pilgrim credentials can be obtained at the tourist office.

Dress code and photography. No dress code for the village or the walls, though modest dress is appropriate inside the church. Photography is unrestricted outdoors; be considerate of residents in the small lanes.

Sources: Comune di Monteriggioni (comune.monteriggioni.si.it); Monteriggioni official tourism site (monteriggioniturismo.it); Art Bonus / Ministero della Cultura (artbonus.gov.it); Regione Toscana; Via Francigena / Visit Tuscany (visittuscany.com); Autolinee Toscane (at-bus.it); Dante, Inferno XXXI. Checked 5 August 2026.