Santa Maria del Renaio 5. Don Gnocchi Building

Il Piano

Arnolfo’s Square Red Bank Santa Maria Assunta a Spugna Santa Maria del Renaio Don Gnocchi Building Boschi Area - Old Paper Mill Crystal Museum Square-Church & Cloister of Sant’Agostino Four Cantons Headquarter of the Choir Bellini The Elevator & The Bastion Palazzo Masson

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1. Arnolfo’s Square

The medieval urban organisation is reflected in today’s layout of the town which is divided into Colle Bassa, a manufacturing centre, and Colle Alta, rich in artistic landmarks. In the centre of Colle Bassa there is a wide porticoed square dedicated to the famous architect, sculptor and native son of Colle Arnolfo di Cambio. Its creation dates back to 1865 when the first municipal Administration of Colle was looking for a new space to be assigned to a marketplace and fair; the right area was found in the old ‘“Pian dei Canali” (a plain area that got its name from the canals about one meter in width and depth which bring Elsa’s waters to Colle) since it would have permitted the creation of buildings with porches around the square and access roads. For the realization of the square, part of the old city walls and the 13th-century Church of San Jacopo were knocked down. Noteworthy today in the square is the old train station now a pharmacy. In front of it there is the big fountain by Daniel Buren that is part of the urban space redevelopment intervention coordinated by the architect Jean Nouvel that involved four artists: Lewis Baltz worked on the rediscovery and enhancement of the canals along Via Mazzini; Daniel Buren took care of the pavement. What is left unfinished are the details curated by Bertrand Lavier, his urban decoration and the porches planned with colored canopies that mark the arches, and by Alessandra Tesi for the lighting and vaults. On the opposite side there’s the monument for the Fallen of WWI, created by the sculptor, Mario Sabbatelli, officially inaugurated on November 4 1925 by King Vittorio Emanuele III.

Arnolfo di Cambio

Arnolfo di Cambio, also known as Arnolfo di Lapo, was born in 1245 in Colle di Val d’Elsa. He was a sculptor, an architect and an urbanist that worked mostly in Rome and Florence at the end of the 12th and at the beginning of the 13th century. His greatest work is certainly the architectural designing of the cathedral of “Santa Maria del Fiore ”. He was also the architect of Palazzo Vecchio the Florentine Town Hall. As a sculptor he made the pulpit of Siena Cathedral and the monument to De Braye in Orvieto as well as other works for Orvieto’s Cathedral.

2. Red Bank

Built according to the design of Giovanni Michelucci from Pistoia, it dates back to 1973 and was completed in 1983 to replace the wool mill designed in neo-Gothic style by Antonio Salvetti. It is a work with an original structure, which develops on five floors supported by a network of red metal elements on local stone walls. This suspended grid creates space a covered square below for public use. As a whole, the structure is like a fragment of the “new city,” interpreting the collective needs by creating an open and penetrable space that perfectly reflects Michelucci’s concept of the bank as a place of encounter and exchange.

The name Spugna comes from the type of sandstone which has the appearance of a sponge. It is recorded in a document since 1777. This is one of the most ancient church of Colle. The restoration in the early twentieth century gave the building a neogothic aspect to the façade (a mullioned window opening within a pointed archand

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3. Santa Maria Assunta a Spugna

a crowning with hanging archies). The church has a rectangular plan, single nave with two small apses on the sides. On the walls there are the remains of frescoes. Among the works of art preserved inside is a 16th century painting of the Tuscan school depicting the Saints Biagio, Francesco, Pietro da Verona and Bartolomeo.