Pienza

Pienza, formerly the village of Corsignano, was the birthplace of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II in 1458. On passing through in 1459 and finding his hometown in poor repair, he commissioned the architect Bernardo Rossellino — a student of the humanist theorist Leon Battista Alberti — to rebuild it as an "ideal city" embodying Renaissance humanist principles, renaming it Pienza after himself. The result, centred on the trapezoidal Piazza Pio II and its cathedral, Palazzo Piccolomini, and town hall, is considered the first realized example of Renaissance urban planning, and its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on that basis.