Daily Blog: Shades of Sienna

Decisions that city leaders make can have long lasting and unforeseen effects – both good and bad – on a community.

Louisa Thomas (Newsweek, June 15, 2009, p. 67) tells the story of one five-figure (population 54,066) Italian city that continues to enjoy a certain artistic beauty because of a decision made centuries ago.

“In 14th-century Siena especially, brick was the primary material used in building, for matters of convenience, cost, esthetics – and law. The city’s Council of Nine supported churches by giving them an annual allocation of bricks, established a statute in 1309 ordaining that domestic architecture should be built of brick, and paved the Campo (Piazza del Campo, the town’s spectacular medieval square) and major streets with fired clay soon after.”

Today during the 700th anniversary of the statute one can walk through the city’s narrow streets and enjoy the monochromatic shades of something the world knows as burnt sienna.

Additional Note: In just a few days, on July 2, thousands of spectators from all over the world will crowd into the Piazza del Campo for a traditional race of ten horses which make three rounds of the Piazza. The race (Palio de Siena) lasts less than two minutes. Each horse represents a city ward or district. The winning neighborhood gains unending celebratory rights.