ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the status and significance of the Virgin in Sienese civil religion. It examines the origins and history of Sienese devotion to the Virgin from the twelfth century onwards, including successive dedications of the city to the Virgin between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The chapter focuses on the bronze door - known as the 'Porta della Riconoscenza' - which was donated to Siena cathedral in 1946 in thanks for the city escaping destruction during the Second World War. Virgin in front of which they are depicted is clearly a portrayal of the Madonna del Voto as it would have appeared in the late fifteenth century, housed in a chapel in the south aisle of the cathedral. The chapter considers the role of the Sienese contrade and the Palio in relation to this particular expression of modern Sienese civil religion and its commemoration since the 1940s.
