Pienza Cathedral site features

The cathedral closes the south side of Piazza Pio II, and the first thing to understand is that it is facing the wrong way on purpose: the main front looks north across the square, an orientation almost no Italian church has, chosen so the building would compose with the palaces beside it.

The facade is travertine, pale and finely cut, and divided into three vertical zones by four pilasters — one zone for each of the three naves behind it, so the front tells you the plan before you go in. A string course cuts it horizontally into two storeys. Below are the three entrance doors; above, three large arches carried on columns, with niches of classical character under the two outer arches and, in the middle one, a single round oculus. On the tympanum at the top is the coat of arms with the emblem of the Holy See of Pius II Piccolomini.

Two details sit oddly against all that Renaissance order, and they are the most interesting things on the exterior: the twin-pitched roof and that central oculus recall Franciscan Gothic churches and the German Hallenkirchen Pius II had seen on his travels — above all in how much light they let in. The side walls and the apse carry Gothic windows, and the result is an interior far brighter than a Tuscan church of this date normally is.

Walk round to the south and the building's real audacity shows: the apse and part of the transept project out over the steep hillside, standing on ground that falls away beneath them.

Inside, three naves run all at the same height — the middle one only wider, not taller — divided by two rows of pillars with half-columns attached and decorated capitals raised above the pillars. Cross vaults run overhead. The eye goes straight down the nave to the east end, where the apse divides into three chapels with the carved wooden choir of the later 15th century in the largest, and two more chapels in the arms of the crossing, each with one big window.

And in that east end you will see the cracking and settlement. It is not damage from an event; the ground under the apse walls has been giving way since the church was built.

• The north–south orientation — the facade faces north across the square, against almost universal church practice, purely so the building would compose with Piazza Pio II.
• The travertine facade (1459–1462) — Rossellino's design: four pilasters dividing it into three zones matching the naves, a string course across the middle, three doors below and three arched openings above, with classical niches and a central oculus.
• The papal arms on the tympanum — the coat of arms with the emblem of the Holy See of Pius II Piccolomini, crowning the front.
• The Gothic windows — in the side walls and the apse, and the reason the interior is unusually luminous; the twin-pitched roof and oculus point the same way, toward the Franciscan Gothic churches and German Hallenkirchen Pius II knew from his travels.
• The three equal-height naves — divided by pillars with attached half-columns and raised decorated capitals, under cross vaults; the middle nave is wider but no taller.
• The subsiding apse — the apse and part of the transept stand out over the hillside, and this part of the building has been settling since construction because of the ground beneath its perimeter walls.
• Giovanni di Paolo's Virgin with Child and Saints Antony Abbot, Bernardino, Francis and Sabina — with a Pietà in the lunette; a late work, and the first painting on the right.
• Two panels by Matteo di Giovanni — the Madonna enthroned with Saints Bartholomew, Catherine, Lucy and Matthew in the first right chapel, and a second Madonna with Saints Nicholas, Martin, Augustine and Jerome on the left nave wall.
• Vecchietta's Assumption of the Virgin — with Saints Agatha, Pius I, Callixtus I and Catherine of Siena, in the left apsidal chapel.
• Sano di Pietro's Madonna and Child with Saints James, Philip, Anne and Magdalene — with the Dead Christ between two angels in the lunette, in the left lateral chapel.
• Bernardo Rossellino's Tabernacle of the Most Holy Sacrament — 15th century, in the right apsidal chapel: the architect of the building represented inside it as a sculptor.
• The bell tower — very slender, damaged by the earthquake of 1545 and restored in 1570.