What is Trequanda known for?

Five centuries of ornamental terracotta from a hilltop workshop tradition still active in Petroio. Città dell'Olio member; the surrounding hills sit in the Terre di Siena DOP production area for extra-virgin oil. Inscribed in 2018 on the national register of historic rural landscapes for its unbroken pattern of fields, oaks and stone borghi.

Trequanda is a comune in the province of Siena, Tuscany region of Italy, about 76 kilometers from Perugia.

Tuscany · Siena

Trequanda

A village of 1,166 in three hilltop borghi between Crete Senesi and Val di Chiana, with the terracotta workshops of Petroio holding to a five-hundred-year craft.

76 km / 47 mi

Nearest hub (Perugia)

1,166

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Trequanda is three villages in one comune: Trequanda itself, Castelmuzio, and Petroio, scattered across the hills southeast of Siena. The first written record dates to 1198, when the Cacciaconti of Scialenga held it as fief; in 1211 Emperor Otto IV gave them the right to collect tolls. In 1553 the village was among the first to be annexed to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The Cacciaconti castle still anchors the centro storico, the Pieve dei Santi Pietro e Andrea next to it, built from 1327 in a Gothic-Romanesque mix and renovated in the Renaissance. Petroio has produced fine ornamental terracotta since the early sixteenth century: lions and dogs and pineapples and chimney pots, the surface of half the gardens in central Tuscany. The municipality holds the Orange Flag from the Italian Touring Club and was inscribed in 2018 in the national register of historic rural landscapes.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello dei Cacciaconti
Medieval fortress at the center of Trequanda, seat of the Cacciaconti di Scialenga from the twelfth century.
Pieve dei Santi Pietro e Andrea
Gothic-Romanesque parish church begun in 1327, expanded in the Renaissance, holding a fresco attributed to Sodoma.
Castelmuzio
Walled hilltop frazione between Trequanda and Pienza, on the rural landscape register, the smallest of the three borghi.
Petroio
Hilltop frazione at 486 meters, the terracotta center of the comune, with workshops continuing the craft from the early 1500s.
Museo della Terracotta di Petroio
Civic museum inside the Palazzo Pretorio of Petroio, with five centuries of local terracotta and reproductions of nearby towns.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June brings the green months across the Crete Senesi, the clay hills holding their color before the summer burn. September and October are dry and gold, the olive harvest running through November in the Petroio and Castelmuzio frantoi. July and August touch thirty-six degrees and the three borghi go quiet between four and seven in the afternoon. November through March is the off-season. Most restaurants close at least one day a week, some hotels close entirely. The terracotta workshops in Petroio open year-round; the Festa del Cacio takes place in October and the Festa dell'Olio in November, both small village events held in the piazza.