Siena Cathedral

Siena's striped marble cathedral, largely built in the 13th and 14th centuries, is a Gothic jewel packed with masterpieces: a pulpit by Nicola Pisano, floor mosaics of 56 inlaid marble panels worked on over 200 years, and a library frescoed by Pinturicchio. In 1339, at the height of its rivalry with Florence, Siena began an audacious expansion to make this the largest church in all Christendom, turning the existing cathedral into a mere transept. Then the Black Death of 1348 killed perhaps half the city's population, wrecking the economy and the workforce. The grand scheme was abandoned; the unfinished 'Facciatone' wall still stands as a haunting monument to plague-shattered ambition.