On the trail of art treasures, among the churches and museums of Val d’Orcia

The Val d’Orcia is a land of vistas and freedom, nature and open spaces, but also of villages and historic places that hold treasures and little secrets that offer themselves to the attentive eye.

Churches and museums are the places where we preserve and protect the artistic heritage of the territory: paintings, sculptures, and artifacts bear witness to ancient masteries, which have had great representatives in the Sienese school and over the centuries; in the St. John’s Art Hall a Castiglione d’Orcia, for example, one can admire works by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, Giovanni di Paolo and the Vecchietta, while the Civic and Diocesan Museum by Montalcino – set up in the former Convent of St. Augustine in Montalcino and can be visited thanks to the routes of the Temple of Brunello – offers the spectacle of wooden sculptures where gold and the natural hues of wood dominate, in fascinating works of artistry as much as craftsmanship, along with an itinerary with an ancient flavor where artifacts from the Poggio della Civitella Archaeological Park are displayed.

Similarly, the Collegiate Church of San Quirico d’Orcia is the custodian of what remains of a marvelous wooden choir: of no less than 19 original panels made by Antonio Barili, only seven are preserved in the church; some have been destroyed over the years (such as the one given to a museum in Vienna, which collapsed under World War II bombings) while others have gone to enrich private collections, losing their traces. Next to the Collegiate Church is also the Palazzo Chigi, designed by Carlo Fontana-a pupil of Bernini-and filled with beautiful frescoes.