Inside the town of Sarteano, which is in the province of Siena at 525 m asl of altitude, the castle of Sarteano, the churches of St. Martino and St. Vittoria, the church of St. Frances, the convent of St. Chiara, the XV-century Palazzo Cennini and the XVI-century Palazzo Goti-Fannelli can be admired.

Under the influence of Chiusi, the most powerful city of the Etruscan League, the area of Sarteano had been living a period of development since the remotest times. The presence of Chiusi on the little settlement continued during the Roman period until the Lombard colonization.
After the year 1000, the territory of Sarteano became a feud owned by the Counts Manenti who established their power until the second half of the XIII century.
Since 1280, Sarteano was raised to the status of an autonomous city-state, even though the Republic of Siena politically influenced it.
The Tuscan city was interested in this little village because of its closeness to the borders with Orvieto's and Perugia's dominions, with which it historically rivalled for controlling the Val d'Orcia and the Val di Chiana.
During the following years, the town repeatedly experienced the assaults and the occupations by one of these three cities while, at the same time, it tried to defend the rights of the Manentis so as to resolutely confirm its autonomy.
This troubled period, during which Sarteano entered the seigniories of Orvieto, Perugia and Siena (1379), ended with the great political overturning of Tuscany in the XVI century.
After the arrival of the Spanish, who supported the Medicis, the Tuscany Grand Duchy was created and it was an institution destined to rule the region until the Unity of Italy in 1860.
In 1556, Sarteano was annexed to the Medicis' state in the ambit of the process that gathered all the Siena territories into the new Grand Duchy.