Montepulciano

Legend says the Etruscan king Lars Porsena of Clusium, modern Chiusi, founded the town; finds show a settlement existed in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. In Roman times it held a garrison guarding the roads of the area, and after the fall of the Western Empire it grew as a religious centre under the Lombards — a document of 715 records a church at Castello Pulliciano on the site of the later San Biagio.

In the 12th century Siena attacked the town repeatedly, and the townspeople, the Poliziani, resisted with help from Perugia, Orvieto and sometimes Florence. The 14th century brought feuds between noble families until the Del Pecora took control. From 1390 Montepulciano was an ally, and later a possession, of Florence, and until the mid-16th century it enjoyed its finest period, when Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Vignola, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Ippolito Scalza built palaces and churches. The humanist poet Angelo Poliziano was born here in 1454, and families such as the Bellarmino, Tarugi and Contucci gave the Church a pope, cardinals and dozens of bishops.

After Florence conquered Siena in 1559 the town lost its strategic role and declined, although it became a bishop's seat and began its cathedral in 1594. After Italian unification it passed from the province of Arezzo to that of Siena and became the main agricultural market of the area, while industry moved down towards the railway, which reached the valley in 1884. Since the Second World War tourism has become a large part of the town's economy.

The town's year peaks in August. The Bruscello, a form of Tuscan peasant theatre sung and acted by non-professionals, has been staged every year since 1939 on the cathedral steps around 15 August, telling stories that range from the epic to the farcical. On the last Sunday of the month comes the Bravio delle botti, a race held since 1974 in place of a horse race recorded from 1373: pairs of runners from the eight contrade, each with its own colours, push 80-kilogram barrels up through the streets to Piazza Grande, competing for a painted cloth bearing the town's patron saint.

Music has a strong place. The composer Hans Werner Henze founded the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte here in 1976, a summer workshop where artists and townspeople stage performances together, and several works have had their premieres at the festival; the Teatro Poliziano is the town's theatre. The rock band Baustelle, formed in 1994, has its roots in the town.

Local pride centres on the town's Renaissance heritage and its famous sons: Angelo Poliziano, the Renaissance scholar and poet, and St Agnes of Montepulciano, born near the town in 1268. Visitors also come because scenes of the Twilight films were shot here. Montepulciano is twinned with Moulins in France.

About 13,000 people live in the municipality, which takes in the hill town and villages in the valley below, among them Montepulciano Stazione. Wine is the backbone of the local economy: the Vino Nobile consortium brings together all the producers of the area, and vineyards cover much of the surrounding land. Tourism, growing since the Second World War, supports the shops, cellars and restaurants of the historic centre.

Within the walls, many streets are closed to traffic, and most commercial life runs along the Corso, which stretches about one and a half kilometres from Porta al Prato to Piazza Grande. The weekly market fills the square by the bus station on Thursday mornings, and the town's weekly newspaper, L'Araldo Poliziano, covers mainly news of the diocese of Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza.

The town is governed by an elected mayor and council; Michele Angiolini, first elected in 2019, was re-elected in June 2024 with about 53 per cent of the vote.

Montepulciano's fame rests on Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a red wine with DOCG status made mainly from Sangiovese, known locally as Prugnolo gentile, blended with Canaiolo Nero and small amounts of other local grapes, and aged for at least two years, one of them in oak. With Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico it is one of the principal red wines of Tuscany. The poet Francesco Redi praised it as the king of all wines. It should not be confused with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a wine made from a different grape in another region. The area also makes Rosso di Montepulciano and Vin Santo di Montepulciano, both with DOC status; Vin Santo is a Tuscan dessert wine, often made from dried white grapes.

The town is also known for pici and pecorino cheese. Pici are a thick, hand-rolled Tuscan pasta, like fat spaghetti. Other Tuscan staples appear on the menus: ribollita, a soup that began as the previous day's vegetable soup reheated; game such as wild boar and hare in sauces for pappardelle; and cantucci, oblong almond biscuits.