Orsini Fortress and Civic Archaeological Museum

Museums

In Sorano a route through the fortified underground to discover the military complex

The Orsini Fortress is an imposing military construction that dominates the village of Sorano, which was ordered by the Aldobrandeschi family and then enlarged in the sixteenth century by the Orsini family. The fortress had a defensive function due to its strategic location from which the roads to Sorano and Pitigliano could be guarded, thus preventing possible attacks from the Papal States and keeping all traffic in the Maremma, Amiata and Siena area under control.

Orsini Fortress - Photo © C. D'Aliasi

View from Orsini Fortress - Photo © C. D'Aliasi

Today the Orsini Fortress is open to the public and also houses the small Civic Archaeological Museum, which showcases ceramics and other glazed artifacts found in the Sorano area, in the so-called "butti", or medieval wells.
A small room displays three codices from Sorano and Castell'Ottieri. In the study of Niccolò IV Orsini are two groups of frescoes by an artist of the Sienese school executed between 1580 and 1585, with classical floral motifs, scenes of mythological character and the Gregorian notes of the music of a song reported in Boccaccio's Decameron.