Effects of Good Government in the city

The Sala della Pace (“Peace Room”) is covered with frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1338-1339), commissioned by the council of the Nine and one of the most important secular cycles in the history of art, a true civil and political manifesto of Siena’s enlightened and ambitious government. The effects of good government are illustrated on the adjoining wall, which faces, and opposes, the Bad Government wall. It presents a plausible picture of Siena as an ideal and a real city at the same time, brightly colored, hard-working, full of people. The city gates are open, a sign that this is peacetime and there is no need to close them for defense. The flow of trade and traffic between the city and the countryside is free and constant.