The archway Arco dei Becci e Cugnanesi leads to Piazza della Cisterna, the most beautiful square of the town, originally lined with workshops and taverns. In the middle there is an octagonal travertine well that gives the name to the square. The well was built in 1273 and enlarged in 1346 by Podestà Guccio dei Malavolti, whose coat of arms - a ladder - is engraved on the stone walls of the well. <... [+ info]

The archway Arco dei Becci e Cugnanesi leads to Piazza della Cisterna, the most beautiful square of the town, originally lined with workshops and taverns. In the middle there is an octagonal travertine well that gives the name to the square. The well was built in 1273 and enlarged in 1346 by Podestà Guccio dei Malavolti, whose coat of arms - a ladder - is engraved on the stone walls of the well.
Originally its name was Piazza delle Taverne, than Piazza dell'Olmo, because of the huge elm tree that dominated the square. Piazza della Cisterna has a timeless magical atmosphere that brings visitors back in time. Ancient buildings and towers alternate in perfect harmony all around the square, whose redbrick pavement with irregular triangular patterns leads to Via del castello.
Looking at Via del Castello, on the right-hand side, you can admire Palazzo Tortoli, with its elegant mullioned windows dating back to the fourteenth century, the cut-off tower which belonged to the Pucci family between the nineteenth and the twentieth century, Hotel Cisterna, the former residence of the Cetti and Bracceri families, then turned into a Children's Home (Ospizio dei Gettatelli); Palazzo Ridolfi, the towers and the houses that belonged to Beccis and Cugnanesis; Palazzo Pellari and Palazzo Ardinghelli, with its two towers.
On the other side of the square, Palazzo Lupi stands with its Torre del Diavolo, the Devil's Tower: its owner, back from a long journey, found it unexplainably higher and he ascribed the work to the Devil. After Vicolo dell'Oro, originally the street of goldsmiths' workshops, there is Palazzo Cortesi-Lolli, erected on pre-existent buildings.