We can find Monteriggioni in the ninth circle of Dante Alighieri's Inferno.
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...però che come sulla cerchia tonda Monteriggion di torri si corona, così'n la proda che il pozzo circonda torreggiaban di mezza la persona, gli orribili giganti ... |
... as with circling round
of turrets, Monteriggioni crowns his walls;
e'en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss,
was turreted with giants, half their length
uprearing, horrible ...
It was towards the end of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century that Dante Alighieri first glimpsed the outline of Monteriggioni.He was to remember this view of the town and evoke it in Canto XXXI of his Inferno.
Let us recall the scene.
Descending to the ninth circle, Dante hears the piercing sound of a horn: he turns his head and thinks that,though the dark mists, he can see the outlines of "many a lofty tower" in the distance.Virgil explains that this is only a visual illusion and tells him to go closer towards this remarkable vision. Using imaginative comparisons, Dante then goes on in further detail to describe the giants's aspect and size and the pit from which the top halves of their bodies emerge.
