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Le paysage de la vallée de l’Orcia fait partie de l’arrière-pays agricole de Sienne, redessiné et aménagé lors de son intégration dans le territoire de la ville aux XIVe et XVe siècles de façon à refléter un modèle de bonne gouvernance, tout en créant une image esthétiquement agréable. Les qualités esthétiques du paysage, avec ses plaines de craie d’où s’élèvent des collines presque coniques, au sommet desquelles se regroupent des peuplements fortifiés, ont inspiré quantité d’artistes. Leurs œuvres illustrent la beauté des paysages agricoles gérés avec le génie de la Renaissance. L’inscription comprend : un paysage agraire et pastoral colonisé et planifié qui reflète des systèmes novateurs d’occupation des sols, plusieurs villes et villages, des fermes et la via Francigena, une voie romaine avec les abbayes, auberges, sanctuaires, ponts, qui y sont associés.

Ce site culturel est classé au patrimoine mondial de l'humanité par l'UNESCO depuis 2004.

Histoire du site

The Val d'Orcia bears testimony from archaeological remains to prehistoric settlement, to an important role during the Etruscan period and to further development during the Roman Empire. The area seems to have been largely abandoned agriculturally in the Middle Ages. A revival in the economy and a certain stability in the 10th and 11th centuries led to the establishment of monasteries, greater use of the Via Francigena and the development of villages under a feudal system.
Sienna's dramatic growth as a trading state in the 13th and 14th centuries, led it to expand its agricultural base outwards from the periphery of Sienna. The Val d'Orcia was colonised together with other outlying areas such as the Maremma along the coast. The wealth of Siennese merchants was invested in turning the landscape into productive farmland within an innovative land tenure framework. So far from being at the edge of the state, the valley became a focus for display. Merchants supported the development of settlements, built palaces and churches and commissioned paintings that depicted the life of ordinary people in the landscape.
Sienna's rivalry with Florence, the seat of aristocratic power, lasted for more than two centuries. The weakening of Sienna at the end of the 16th century was followed by a Florentine victory after which the Val d'Orcia gradually declined in economic importance and the Via Francigena became a secondary route for local traffic.
The comparative poverty and marginalisation of the area over the following four centuries has had the effect of sustaining traditional land-use patterns and structures. In the 1960s the new laws on land management in Italy which translated tenancies into contracts, and which have led to the abandonment of land in many regions, seem to have had less effect in the Val d'Orcia.
In the past thirty-five years or so the farmland has undergone some improvements such as an extension of the cultivated land and better control mechanisms for water management. A few areas of intensive change have been put into the buffer zone.
In 1999 the area was protected as an Artistic, Natural and Cultural Park. This was the initiative of the five municipalities who established a common management body, which was then integrated within the provincial administration.

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