Porrona Castle

Porrona Castle is a fortified structure located in the medieval village of Porrona, in the municipal territory of Cinigiano. Its location is in the square of the historic center, at the western corner of the perimeter of the Porrona walls. The castle was built in the medieval period by the Sienese, right around the time when the walls bordering the village were being built. Work was completed in the early 13th century. It immediately became a place of residence for noble Sienese families, and from the 14th century onward it became the residence of the Tolomei and Piccolomini families, who shared control over the castle and the nearby palace located in the central part of the village. In the late Renaissance period and, more precisely, in the early sixteenth century, the structure was completely rebuilt; a subsequent restoration carried out in the early twentieth century in the neo-Gothic style reintroduced the lost stylistic elements of the medieval period. Porrona Castle faces the same square where the parish church of San Donato is located. The walls of the outer side coincide with the western corner of the city wall. The structure consists of two main buildings. The main building is on several levels, with the façade looking toward the church square broken at some height by the tower, which, projecting slightly, rests on three corbels; the single-lancet windows opening on the tower wall culminate in pointed arches. The tower rises above the four-sloping roof and is crowned at the top by a characteristic cordoned battlements. On the right side of the main building abuts another building, of lesser height, culminating in a cordoned top battlement that affects the entire structure. The walls of the entire complex are entirely faced in stone, fully echoing the medieval stylistic elements that characterize all the other buildings in the charming castle town.