Republic of Siena

A banking republic that beat Florence once and never recovered from what came after. Siena grew wealthy on the Via Francigena, the pilgrim road to Rome, and on banking - the Gran Tavola of the Bonsignori was among Europe's largest financial houses in the thirteenth century, handling papal money across the continent. Its government was unusually deliberate about avoiding tyranny: the Nine, a council of merchants excluding nobles, ruled from 1287 to 1355 and commissioned the works that define the city, including the Palazzo Pubblico and Lorenzetti's fresco cycle on good and bad government, painted to remind the councillors sitting beneath it what was at stake. Siena defeated Florence decisively at Montaperti in 1260, the high point of its power, and then lost the rematch at Colle di Val d'Elsa nine years later. The Black Death in 1348 killed perhaps half the population and stopped construction of a vast cathedral extension whose unfinished wall still stands. Political instability followed for two centuries. The republic fell after a long siege by imperial and Florentine forces in 1555, and was handed to the Medici. Exiles held out at Montalcino until 1559. The Palio, run twice a year around the Campo, is organised by the medieval contrade. The Monte dei Paschi bank, founded there in 1472, is the oldest still operating. Duccio's Maesta was carried to the cathedral in procession in 1311. The city's historic centre is a World Heritage site. Its territory included the Maremma coast and Montalcino. Catherine of Siena was born there in 1347.

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