Tesori Nascosti in San Quirico d’Orcia

In San Quirico d’Orcia, the second-floor rooms of Palazzo Chigi Zondadari host a collection of works from the exhibition Forme nel Verde (Shapes in the Green), the art event that combines contemporary art and landscape.

Forme nel Verde was founded in 1971 as the first exhibition in Italy to offer visions of Land Art, that art form in which sculpture interacts with the space. In its fifty-year history, an impressive number of international artists have exhibited their works in the Horti Leonini in San Quirico d’Orcia, including Pietro Cascella, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Manzù, Greco, Mastroianni, Somaini, Bodini, Consagra, Trubbiani, Sinisca, Tagliolini, Capotondi, Mazzacurati, Nivola, Perez, Metzler, Xhixha and many others.

Today, the “Allegoria della Terra” (“Allegory of the Earth”), “Fetonte” (“Phaeton”) and “Minerva Scaccia i Giganti” (“Minerva Drives Out the Giants”) rooms of Palazzo Chigi have become permanent homes for the sculptures that the artists called upon to exhibit in the various editions of the exhibition have donated to the municipal administration, from the 1970s to the present.

The Tesori Nascosti (Hidden Treasures) project unfurls along the route of the Via Francigena, with the aim of systematizing the rich artistic cultural heritage that exists and is today “hidden” within historic buildings, churches and gardens, structured into a real destination product, according to the criteria of “open air exhibition space” and accessibility, with a particular focus on people with disabilities.