Palazzo Salimbeni, said Rocca Salimbeni
On the bottom of Salimbeni square, restored at the end of 800 by the architect Giuseppe Partini who created the current additional storey and the Gothic enrichment, rises Palazzo Salimbeni, also called ‘Rocca Salimbeni’.
Which at the time of the Medieval Siena turned out to be one of the most important fortified complexes.
On its left there is Palazzo Santucci and on the right Palazzo Spannocchi.
The current Palace is in fact an extension of the old building where the Salimbeni family lived, until their expulsion from Siena and confiscation of their property (1419).
Originally the structure was equipped with two towers, but now only one has remained.
After the Salimbeni, the building was confiscated by the Sienese Republic and in 1472 became the headquarters of the Monte Pio, an institution created to stop the widespread practice of usury.
Only in 1866 the Monte Pio was incorporated in the Monte de’Paschi, another institution that made loans and which decided the restoration realized right by Partini (who also intervened on the other two palaces and on the entire square), who operated the reshuffle in neo-Gothic style (1877).
Further alterations were made in ‘900 by Carlo Ariotti and Vittorio Mariani, up to that of 1959 entrusted to Pierluigi Spadolini, who acted in stages until the complete redesign of the building, both inside and outside (where many spaces were retrained).
Thus, from the original Gothic, the structure it is now admirable in neo-Gothic style.
The facade underwent several changes in conjunction with these restorations.
It is supposed that the intervention was imposed by the need to level out stylistically the surrounding space, having been demolished parts of the surrounding buildings, and rearranged the space of the square.
The rear facade, instead, is reachable via Via dell’Abbadia and it is clamped between two imposing towers.
The neo-Gothic alterations were intended to reproduce as faithfully as possible the features of the Sienese buildings of ‘300.
The introduced items are those also present in the public Palace of the city: three-light windows under pointed arches, battlements with under an unbroken row of blind arches.
Inside Palazzo Salimbeni there is a remarkable collection of works of art.
It’s possible to admire masterpieces by Pietro Lorenzetti, Beccafumi, Sassetta, Jacopo della Quercia and Neroni, to name just a few.
Always inside the building, there is also the Historical Archives of the Monte de’Paschi, which contains several documents, seals and management books.