The city that named a colour
Siena
A Tuscan hill city of warm brown brick, and the source of the earth pigment called sienna.
Why Siena is burnt sienna
Siena, in Tuscany, gave its name to a pigment. The earth of the region is rich in iron oxide and was dug and sold to painters as terra di Siena. Used as it comes, it is a yellowish brown called raw sienna. Roasted, it turns a warm reddish brown, burnt sienna. Both were standard colours for artists for centuries. The city itself is the same range: brick walls, brick towers and the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, paved in red brick. The cathedral adds bold stripes of white and very dark green marble. Twice each summer the Palio horse race fills the square with the flags of the city districts, each with its own colours.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Siena
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Siena" on Wikipedia. If you know Siena and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇮🇹 The island of painted housesBuranoA fishing island in the Venetian lagoon where each small house is a different strong colour.
🇮🇹 Pastel harbour of the Bay of NaplesProcidaA small island where fishermen's houses in sun-faded pink, yellow and blue are stacked above the harbour.
🇮🇹 Five pastel villages on a cliff coastCinque TerreTall houses in ochre, pink and yellow crowd tiny harbours below terraced vineyards on the Italian Riviera.
🇮🇹 La Rossa, the red oneBolognaA city of red brick towers, terracotta roofs and miles of arcades in red, orange and ochre.
🇮🇳 Ruins among golden bouldersHampiThe ruined capital of Vijayanagara lies among heaps of ochre granite boulders and bright green paddy.
🇮🇩 Home of court batikYogyakartaThe royal city of central Java, whose classic batik is drawn in brown, indigo and white.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Hampi In: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source
- Yogyakarta Id: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Burano It: Kasa Fue, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Procida It: Jamiethearcher at English Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Cinque Terre It: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my pho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bologna It: Ввласенко, CC BY-SA 3.0, source