.San Gimignano - the walls

In consideration of how they were erected and how they are preserved, the walls are a living part of San Gimignano. They are not an addition. Without walls the town would not have been and would not be San Gimignano. Castles, palaces, churches, towers were planned for men; the walls for the town in a sense that is not only topographic. They show the contradiction of mediaeval mind both reserved and hospitable, bold and fearful. Fearful of enemies, of strangers, of night-time, of treasons. The walls protected the town giving the sense of the.community, of common interests and ideals never denied, not even during the fratricidal wars. Walls mean unity and independence, protection of local glory and tradition in which every man hands down himself as a person and as people. A document dated 30 December 1214 concerning the second ring of walls bears the title «instrumentum franchezze» (safety deed) and is a definition of the walls as defence of safety and freedom.

The two original cores of San Gimignano were Monte della Torre and Montestaffoli. Surely they were protected with walls, but the first ring enclosing the castle is that starting 1) from Porta dei Bec-ci and dei Cugnanesi, 2) from the Arch of the Cancelleria, 3) from Porta S. Stefano in Canova (near the Prison), 4) from the «postierla» (secret gate in the walls of a town) of Montestaffoli (no more existent). The historian Luigi Pecori, Canon of the Church in the last century, noted that the gates did not show signs of frames or embrasured shutters and added emphatically: «A valid defence were the chest of the citizens».

The perimeter of the first enclosure is 1108 metres, the second ring enclosing the present town was finished at the end of 1100 or the beginning of 1200 (the «instrumen-tum franchezze» is dated 1214) and safety was assured to those who built their houses inside the castle. In 1252 because of the riots, the second enclosure was badly damaged mainly near the gates of St. Matthew and St. John. Ten years later gates and wall were restored. Other smaller gates of this ring are those of Quercec-chio, S. Jacopo al Tempio, Bagnaia, Docciola or Mucchiese, Pisana and Corbisso. At the beginning of 1500's five cylindrical towers were added to the western side of the wall. The second enclosure is 2176 metres long.