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The Spannocchi family in Siena achieved political and economic power due to its mercantile and banking activities. Pope Pius II, a member of the Sienese Piccolomini family, had chosen the Spannocchi family as his treasurers. Ambrogio di Nanni Spannocchi decided in 1471 to build his family palace and he chose as architect the Florentine architect and sculptor Giuliano da Maiano.
The front of the palace is organized in three stories; the ground floor is marked off rhythmically by five round arches, echoed on the upper stories by an equal number of two-light windows divided by elegant colonnettes. The ashlar-work decoration, elegant design of the windows, and proportional criterion used to distribute the elements of the façade recall the architectural language worked out by Michelozzo for the Medici Palace in Florence.
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