Buonconvento is a comune or municipality in the Province of Siena, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Florence and about 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast of Siena in the area known as the Crete Senesi.

History

Buonconvento (from the Latin bonus conventus, "happy place") is mentioned for the first time in 1100. In 1313 the German emperor Henry VII died here.

It was surrounded by a line of walls starting from 1371, carried on by the Republic of Siena to which it belonged until 1559, when it became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It was annexed to Italy in 1861.

Main sights

The local museum of art houses works by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Pietro Lorenzetti, Andrea di Bartolo, Matteo di Giovanni and other Tuscan painters, taken from local churches. The church of Santi Pietro e Paolo has a Madonna Enthroned with Child (c. 1450) by Matteo di Giovanni and a fresco of the early-15th century Sienese school. The fortified pieve of Sant'Innocenza a Piana dates from the 13th-14th centuries. Most of Buonconvento's frazioni house medieval or Renaissance castles.

The church of St. Lawrence, in Bibbiano, has a cyborium by Ventura Salimbeni.

Porta Senese

Buonconvento is almost completely surrounded by walls. The construction of the walls and the nine watch towers and two gates started in 1371. Seven towers still remain today. The Porta Romana on the southerns side of Buonconvento was destroyed in 1944 by the retreating Germans. The Porta Senese with its heavy wooden doors and iron fittings is still standing on the northern side of the historical center and is now perpetually open.