Pienza is a town in the province of Siena with a population of 2076.
In the 15th century, the village of Corsignano stood on the site of the town, where Pope Pius II, from the Sienese Piccolomini family, was born. He ordered the Florentine architect Bernardo Rossellino to rebuild the village into an ideal Renaissance city, which was carried out after 1459. Among the most significant buildings are the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and numerous palazzi (Piccolomini, Borgia, Comunale, Gonzaga).
The rational urban planning scheme first used in Pienza was adopted by architects in many other European cities. In 1995, Renaissance Pienza was declared a World Heritage Site.