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The underground wonders of Siena

Underground passages and tunnels come one after another in a labyrinth winding below the feet that tread the pietra serena of Siena’s medieval streets.

It is the hidden part of the city, its underground world that stretches, permeated with fact and fiction, for approximately 25 kilometres and, today, allows water to flow from the springs and wells, be they large or small, which adorn every corner of the city.

The Bottini [literally, “small barrels”], from the Latin “buctinus”, a word used for the first time in 1226 to indicate the peculiar “barrel” vault of these tunnels, are underground aqueducts created with the aim of solving the water shortage, which plagued Siena in the Middle Ages.

And it was precisely in the Middle Ages that the first works to intercept the aquifers and channel the waters (originating from distant sources into underground passages) were launched. The aqueduct was mostly dug between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, including a stretch of probable Etruscan origin, known as Fontanella, and the current expanse of the underground network dates back to 1466.

The Bottini have two main branches, covering two different levels: the main one of Fontebranda (7.5 km), which brings water to Fontebranda from Fontebecci and the Chiarenna branch (the area north of Siena) and runs to a considerable depth, and the main one of Fonte Gaia, longer (15.7 km) and closer to the surface, which feeds the spring of the same name located in Piazza del Campo and other springs at lower altitudes.

Today, it is possible to walk along these tunnels where the rainwater, collected in the gorello, a small channel excavated along the path, runs until it reaches the springs. Legend has it that, during the excavations, in conditions of absolute silence, the sound of a great mass of flowing water could be heard, making the locals suspect the existence of an underground river, which they went on to dub “Diana”.

It still hasn’t been unearthed to this day. However, during the works, people thought that the river crossed the city centre in a north-east/south-west direction and that the use of its waters would have solved Siena’s water shortage problem.

In 1776, a well dug by the friars of the Convento del Carmine (Pian dei Mantellini area) found a copious vein of water and the discovery seemed to prove the existence of Diana, prompting similar interventions.

Dante also mentions this legendary river in The Divine Comedy when the Sienese Sapia asks him to remember her name to her relatives which Dante will find in Talamone engaged in foolishly digging a harbour just like they did to find the Diana: “You will see them among those vain ones who have put their trust in Talamone (their loss in hope will be more than Diana cost); but there the admirals will lose the most” (Divine Comedy, Purgatory, XIII, 151-154).

Although the official search for Diana ceased centuries ago, its legend is very much alive in the Sienese collective imagination. So much so that, during the Historical Parade, the historical procession preceding the Palio, the drum beat accompanying the monturati (i.e. the members of the parade), along the way is called “passo della Diana” [Step of Diana].

Moreover, near Porta San Marco (in the south-west area), the river has inspired a street called “via della Diana”: according to the most widespread theory, in fact, the river Diana would enter the Sienese underground near Porta Ovile (in the north-east area of the city) and would exit from below the historical centre precisely in the Porta San Marco area.

Photo: Archivio Associazione La Diana, comune di Firenze, Gerardo Cinelli, Mauro Agnesoni