Building for Sale in San Gimignano

MEDIEVAL HISTORY The palace and towers were built between the 11th and 12th centuries, initially by the Mangeri family and completed by the Salvucci family, as part of the fortified system within the first circle of walls of the castle of San Gimignano. The Salvuccis, wealthy merchants from San Gimignano, were involved in the saffron trade and usury. They lent money to the municipalities of San Gimignano, Monteguidi, and Colle di Val d'Elsa and operated their businesses in Friuli, Rimini, Sicily, and the Middle East through the port of Pisa. The original plan included access to the Palace through a narrow, low door, surmounted by a massive architrave and a round arch, partly in pietra serena and partly in Sienese travertine, which opens on the ground floor of the smaller tower on the side of the "castrum" (Piazza delle Erbe). From there one reached the inside of the palace and then, through a series of obligatory and guarded passages, to the top floor where the entrances to the towers were located. A municipal law of 1255 imposed that no family could erect a tower higher than that of the first Rognosa tower (51 m.) and the tower of the Palazzo del Podestà, which represented the municipal authority, 54 m high. The Salvuccis had two twin towers erected on the sides of their majestic palace (the wall was approximately 2.50 m thick at the base), each 42 m high, to demonstrate and testify that their power and considerable wealth were above all other families and the Municipality itself: "One day angels would descend from heaven and place one tower on top of the other, demonstrating the absolute power of the Salvucci family." The towers are both square-based and have very few openings, with only a few small rectangular windows. On the ground floor, they feature very narrow doorways, surmounted by an architrave or a pointed arch. Today, the two towers are shorter; in fact, when they were built, they were taller than the 51 meters of the Torre Rognosa, but after a law of 1255 expressly prohibited exceeding that height, they were lowered. The Salvucci Palace was destroyed for the first time in 1352 by the rival Rdinghelli family who, being of the Guelph party, were bitter enemies of the Ghibelline Salvucci family. Rebuilt, it suffered other fires over the centuries, always resolved while maintaining the original structure of the palace. The Twin Towers and Palazzo Salvucci are fully protected under Law 1089/39 for the protection of Buildings of particular historical and artistic interest. It is said that Japanese architect Minuro Yamasaki was inspired by the Twin Towers of San Gimignano when he built the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York. RECENT HISTORY The current owners, led by Architect Nencioni of the Architettando Associati firm, began a major restoration project after purchasing it in 1992, under the direct supervision of the Superintendency of Environmental and Architectural Heritage of the Province of Siena and the Municipality of San Gimignano, given the property's historical and architectural significance. Before the restoration, access to the apartment was on separate levels: one from the medieval entrance of the Tower (the small portal on Piazza delle Erbe), the other from the condominium entrance through the adjacent Building. In the absence of a direct vertical connection, the renovation included the installation of a private lift, with a hydraulic mechanism, which, starting from the access floor in Piazza delle Erbe, allows access to three different levels: the first at the height of the floor connected to the apartment adjacent to the tower, the second at an intermediate height corresponding to the only high window in the tower and overlooking Via San Matteo, and the third located below the floor level of the terrace, which is accessed via a metal spiral staircase and a motorized skylight. This intervention makes the Minor Twin Tower the only medieval tower equipped with a lift along its entire height. The apartment is located on the second and third floors of Palazzo Salvucci. Using the elevator you go up to the third floor, where the second level of the apartment is located in communication with the tower, consisting of the kitchen, inside the volume of the tower itself, and equipped with a small terrace created in the thickness of the tower's masonry, which overlooks the Arco della Cancelleria and on Via San Matteo. The kitchen flooring was made with old terracotta laid in a herringbone pattern and the ceiling is vaulted. From here a ladder provides access to the top of the tower and functions as a safety escape. Going down three steps you reach a large living room, with four large low-arched windows, which look out onto Piazza delle Erbe and the Collegiate Church on one side and onto Via San Matteo on the other. The living room extends between the two towers, whose squared stone walls are visible. A fold-out bookcase conceals a storage room, carved into the thickness of the walls of the Main Tower, previously used as a connecting passageway. The floor is parquet and the gabled roof is made of beams, wooden joists and old terracotta bricks.