San Gimignano 1300
A tour through history in the ‘City of Towers’
It is a museum that offers a journey back in time through the history of the famous village which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The heart of the exhibition is the great miniature reconstruction of the 14th century San Gimignano: a large 27 square meter ceramic model, which has been worked by a team of architects, historians and artisans for 3 years. They have reconstructed 800 buildings among forts, churches, 72 towers, street life scenes and statues depicting the inhabitants of the time.
The museum includes the presentation of the Via Francigena, which crosses the village and made it a fundamental milestone for pilgrims travelling to Rome. The architectural reconstruction shows a tower house with its interior spaces and the Convent of St. Francis, which was completely demolished in the sixteenth century to allow the expansion of the city’s fortifications.
In the museum you can also admire two scenic set-ups of a typical day of work in the Middle Ages: the first one depicts the everyday life inside the walls of the village, the other one what took place outside the walls, where peasants and craftsmen used to live.