The Provenzano neighborhood owes its name to the rich Ghibelline families, Provenzano and Salvani, whose towers and palaces were located here during the thirteenth century. The most famous member of these families was Provenzan Salvani, one of the most important Ghibelline captains in Tuscany. In 1260 he played a leading role in the Battle of Montaperti, when the Sienese managed to defeat the Guelph troops of Florence. He died fighting in the battle of Colle val d’Elsa in June 1269, which marked the defeat of the Sienese. His enemies chopped off his head, and a nobleman of the Tolomei family named Cavolino impaled it on the tip of a lance and carried it around the city to show it to the vanquished people. As a result of this war, the podestà of Siena ordered that the palace and tower of the Provenzano and Salvani families be destroyed; the stones were then used to rebuild the palace of the enemy Tolomei family. The entire zone remained abandoned and was completely transformed in the sixteenth century, becoming one of the most dangerous and disreputable neighborhoods in town, to the point that a public decree designated the area as the site of the gallows and the residence of the executioner. Its bad reputation was further darkened by numerous women of ill repute who came to Provenzano in the train of the Spanish army and remained there after the troops were driven out of the . . .