A threshold between two cities
There are places that belong to neither one world nor the other, but stand exactly in between. Piazza Matteotti is one of these: on one side modern Siena, on the other the medieval historic center that tightens, becomes older, more intimate. Just look up in the right direction to feel the change in the air, as if time had decided not to choose.
Its name has changed many times, just like its role. From Poggio dei Malavolti to Piazza Umberto I, to the current Piazza Giacomo Matteotti: each name tells a different era, a city that transforms without ever completely forgetting what it was.
The Poggio dei Malavolti
Under the feet of those who cross the square today lies an ancient and powerful story. The Poggio dei Malavolti was a small castle within the city: towers, courtyards, warehouses, stables, and even a church, Sant'Egidio. The Malavolti were one of the most powerful and feared families in Siena, and this space was the heart of their urban dominion. Today nothing stands upright, but the square still preserves the slightly raised shape of the old hill, like a physical memory that the ground refuses to erase.
Below the surface, excavations and documents reveal overlapping layers of history: warehouses, cellars, medieval structures. Walking on Piazza Matteotti literally means walking over centuries of Sienese life.
A node of the world
The square is a node of the Via Francigena: for centuries it has been crossed by pilgrims, merchants, soldiers, students, and travelers heading towards Rome. It is a place that has seen the world pass by, and even today that vocation for transit and meeting has not faded.
The Post Office and Via Banchi di Sopra
The rationalist architecture
The Post Office building, constructed in the 1930s, is a perfect example of rationalist architecture: clean lines, geometric volumes, a total contrast with the Middle Ages that begins just a few meters ahead. The Sienese simply call it "the Post Office", and it is one of the most used meeting points in the city. A modern symbol in an ancient context, coexisting without clashing.
The gateway to the historic center
From here begins Via Banchi di Sopra, one of the most elegant streets in Siena. It is like passing from a modern living room to a medieval hall: in just a few steps, one finds themselves among Gothic palaces, Renaissance loggias, and historic shop windows. An entrance to the city that still surprises those who walk it for the first time.
Come and visit us
The square is alive at all hours: in the morning the buses wake it up, at lunchtime it is bustling with students and workers, in the afternoon it becomes a meeting point, and in the evening it calms down and returns to being a silent threshold to the historic center.
Entrance to the historic center, Siena, starting point for the Via Francigena and Via Banchi di Sopra.
