Palazzo Comunale and Torre Grossa, San Gimignano
Sienese civic workshop · San Gimignano, Italy · 1298
The Palazzo Comunale and Torre Grossa form the civic counterpart to San Gimignano's Collegiata. The stone-and-brick palace is organized around a courtyard and contains council rooms with major frescoes, while the tall tower rises above the dense cluster that made the town famous. Begun in the late thirteenth century, the complex expresses communal government through direct attachment of administrative rooms, public piazza and vertical landmark. The Torre Grossa also provides a panoramic reading of the surviving urban towers and surrounding Val d'Elsa landscape. The date marks the principal palace campaign; the tower was completed later, and climbing it requires stairs.