.San Gimignano - Via S. Giovanni and its Gate

Back to Piazza della Cisterna, going beyond the ancient Porta dei Cugnanesi, we reach Via S. Giovanni. Halfway there is the Pratellesi Palace with mullioned windows, once the Monastery of St. Catherine. In the interior note the frescoes by V. Tamagni. Farther on but opposite, there is the Church formerly of St. John, belonged to the Knights Templar in the 12th century and later to the Knights of Malta. Above the door there is the characteristic circumscribed Templar Cross.

Outside Porta S. Giovanni there is the Remembrance Park with the War Memorial for the soldiers dead in the 1915-18 war; on the left, looking at the gate, rises the 15th century Round Bulwark where Niccolo Machiavelli instructed the soldiers to drill with the arms «claiming to Italy - reads a tablet on the keep - the right to fight and to shed blood for the country».
Once back to the town, if you dispose of sufficient time, follow the stairs on the left of the Gate and go along Via Berignano to discover breath-taking views of San Gimignano. From Via Quercec-chio, turning to right, return to Via S. Giovanni and through the Cugnanesi Arch, come back to Cistern Square.