It has become the norm to believe that the building work to construction the palace began the day after a meeting between magistrates and representatives of the townspeople resident in the Three Cities, held in July 1297 with the aim of agreeing as to the working methods and times .
Believing that the owners of the houses located along the city streets and the "Via Francigena", which still flank the Campo today, were interested in carrying out work on their properties to adapt them to suit the renewed urban quality of the site, the government immediately issued very strict building regulations, which included the obligation to characterize the other houses with similar features to those chosen for Palazzo Pubblico, so that no private home dared compete in terms of grandness,elegance and originality,with the ambitious intentions of the "Nine".
We don't know the name of the architect who supervised the works.
Documents list a series of little known names, the most frequently mentioned however is that of a certain Maestro Giovanni, qualified as an "illuminator and calligrapher".
This sort of paradox, which is anything but, should be highlighted:in fact, Siena was well-known, and not just in this period, for great interpretes who willing "lowered", themselves to performing small, almost unnoticeable,tasks,always applying themselves wholeheartedly to the job in hand, just as there was no lack of officially modest people ready to carry out exceptionally important duties, only to retreat into the folds of peaceful anonymity.
In 1304 the part facing the Campo was probably already completed, resulting in the decision to create an "extension" towards the south consisting in the fudamental section that houses the Loggia of the Nine, the Council Room( or the Map of the World ) and the Offices of the Biccherna.
Around 1308, the Palazzo was practically finished as we see it today, apart from the left wing, that of the Podestà, where the site of Torre del Mangia was to remain open for another forty years.
The Tower'smain bell chimed for the first time during the terrible epidemic which was to have far more devastating effects on Siena that any other town, decimating the population and freezing the urban nucleus in a very spicial dimension which, fortunately, has lasted almost perfectly intact until the present day.
Palazzo Pubblico has undergone very little change compared with its original configuration.The most important changes being those planned by Carlo Fontana at the end of the 1600's .
The Architect, who worked with Alessandro VII Chigi, created the upper levels of the two lateral wings with the construction of large rooms at the sides of the hall of the People's Captain, as well as a grand staircase via which to reach them also improving the interior connections which , until that time , had been very precarious, being entrusted to wooden laddres and balconies which divided the Palazzo into sectors destined to different functions and guests.
At the end of the eighteen hundreds the Palazzo's facade underwent extensive restoration work to restore its medieval image.
The restoration was also motivated by the opening of the monumental halls for vistis by tourists were finally able to enjoy the frescoed spaces freed, at long last, from their use as offices which had lasted centuries
The Palazzo with the construction of the Museo Civico, during the 1930's, achieved a condition which remains today.

From 1st November to 15th March
every day 10:00 am - 16:00

From 16th march to 31st October
every day 10:00 am - 19:00

Tickets
Euro 5,50 without reservation - euro 5,00 with Free reservation (inferior boys to 11 years, companions studenteschi groups, companions groups every 1 15)

From 1st November to 15th March
every day 10:00 am - 18:30

From 16th march to 31st October
every day 10:00 am - 19:00

Tickets
Entire euro 6,50 without reservation - euro 6,00 with Reduced reservation (students ultra 6ënni, invalids and soldiers) euro 4,00 without reservation - euro 3,50 with Free reservation (inferior boys to 11 years, companions studenteschi groups, companions groups every 1 15)