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PIENZA
It was in this Tuscan town that Renaissance urban ideas were first
put into practice after Pope Pius II decided in 1459 to renovate
his birthplace. The architect chosen, Bernardo Rossellino, applied
the principles of his mentor Leone Alberti and built the extraordinary
Pius II Square, around which are built the Piccolomini Palace, the
Borgia Palace and the cathedral with its purely Renaissance exterior
and an interior in the late Gothic style of south German churches.
