Fonte Branda (Branda Fountain), Siena

Branda Fountain is Siena’s oldest and most famous public fountain and was one of the city’s principal water sources during the Middle Ages. An earlier fountain existed on the site, but the present structure was built in 1246. Fed by Siena’s underground bottini aqueducts, it supplied residents, travelers, animals, workshops, and nearby mills for centuries.

The fountain resembles a small medieval fortress, with three broad pointed Gothic arches and a crenellated brick roofline. Its brick battlements feature flat Guelph crenellations, reflecting the political faction that dominated Siena during the conflicts surrounding the famous Battle of Montaperti. Look up to the top of the brick facade to follow the crenellations running in a sharp, box-like pattern across the roofline.

The water was carefully divided among three tiered stone basins: the first provided drinking water for humans, the second served for watering livestock, and the third functioned strictly as a public wash-house for laundering clothes. Make sure you step out of the sun and pass directly under the cool, vaulted brick ceiling of the left arch to peer into the basins, which run deep into the stone floor of the interior portico. Only the overflow wastewater exiting the final basin was funneled into channels to power the downhill workshops of the wool dyers, tanners, and mills. The surrounding neighborhood was once crowded with craftsmen’s homes and workshops, later housing a civic slaughterhouse before being beautifully restored.

Branda Fountain also holds a prominent place in Italian literature, famously mentioned in the 30th Canto of Dante’s Inferno and referenced in the writings of Boccaccio’s Decameron, illustrating its renown throughout the medieval world. Today, the site is deeply connected to Saint Catherine of Siena—historically called the "Saint of Branda Fountain."