At the junction of the Pian dei Mantellini and via della Diana are two important monuments.
View from via di Stalloreggi
Chiesa di San Nicolò
One is the lovely chiesa di San Nicolò with its Carmelite convent annexe from the first half of the fifteenth century and substantial twentieth-century repairs.
The San Niccolò al Carmine Church, Bell Tower
Inside is a splendid canvas by Domenico Beccafumi depicting Michele che scaccia gli angeli ribelli – Saint Michael driving out the Rebel Angels – originally in the hospital it was considered unseemly because of its tangled, convulsed bodies. This could be Beccafumi's attempt at a new, more chaste version of an earlier painting with the same theme, refused by the Carmelites and now in the Pinacoteca. This new work was refused by the Hospital but accepted by the Carmelites.
Palazzo Incotnri, Façade
Palazzo del Vescovo
Next door is the Palazzo del Vescovo, later called Celsi-Pollini, attributed to the genius of Baldassare Peruzzi and founded in 1527, the last arch being added in the eighteenth century.
Baldassarre Peruzzi, Palazzo del Vescovo
The frescoes preserved in the first-floor rooms are the work of the Riccio studio, and have moral themes: Lapidazione dei Vecchioni accusatori della casta Susanna; Clemenza di Scipione che restituisce la sposa a Allucio – The Chaste Susannah being Stoned and Accused by the Elders; Clement of Scipione returning Allucio's bride to him.
A second façade looks down on the via di S. Quirico and ends with the small prison church and tower of S. Ansano. Here, according to tradition, the saint was imprisoned before his martyrdom – however, the tower is clearly medieval while S. Ansano was martyred in the fourth century.
Comune di Siena 2010 - accessible version -
