Greetings All,
Something different
Every day we are bombarded with news about banks being too big to fail or too involved in speculation and bubbles, but when we were in Siena a few weeks ago we came across a bank that seems to be a very stable institution......at least physically, The Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena established by the Magistrate of the city-state of Siena in 1472 predates the discovery of America and as such is the oldest surviving bank in the world.
MPS has various palazzi in Siena and holds a large number of priceless historical documents dating to it's foundation, sadly the collection is not open to the public. Their most recent publicly known acquisition of art is a gold plated panel by Segna di Bonaventura. While the headquarters is in Palazzo Salimeni this branch down the street is a bit more splashy. You can easily understand why banks have for the last 600+ years built themselves solid looking palazzi that give the air of permanence and stability.
Walking down the chic shopping street
The view from the loggia
Wonderful sculpture on the piers
The loggia with it's painted decoration and very long marble benches
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Looking up
One of two Renaissance benches
Detail of the piers
Benches
Armrests
Bronze doors
All that lovely space housing money money money, what better use for it than to make beauty.
And that's all I have.
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