Galleria Continua
The former essay cinema on Via del Castello 11 still has the bones of a place built for looking — high ceilings, a sense of directed attention — which turns out to suit contemporary art rather well. Galleria Continua opened here in 1990, and what began as a converted cinema in a medieval Tuscan hill town has quietly grown into one of the more serious galleries in Europe, with eight locations across five continents.
The San Gimignano outpost spreads across four separate venues: the cinema itself, a medieval tower, a vaulted cellar, and an apartment on Piazza della Cisterna. Works by Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum and Daniel Buren have all passed through these walls.
💛 What travellers fall for
Regulars tend to pick up the contemporary-art map from the gallery — it covers site-specific installations around town that most visitors walk past without knowing what they're looking at. The combined ticket across all four venues is worth it; the medieval tower and the vaulted cellar show work very differently from the main cinema space.
The story behind Galleria Continua
On 13 October 1990, three friends — Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo — opened Galleria Continua in a garage measuring roughly six by four metres, each contributing 500 euros. The space they eventually took over was San Gimignano's first essay cinema, a venue already accustomed to a certain kind of cultural seriousness.
From that single room, the gallery expanded steadily and ambitiously: China in 2004 (the first foreign gallery with an international programme to open there), Les Moulins in the Parisian countryside in 2007, Havana in 2015, Rome and São Paulo in 2020, and Paris's Marais district in 2021. The founders remain at the helm, and the San Gimignano space — spread now across four historic buildings — remains the origin point of it all.
Good to know
Open daily 10am–1pm and 2–7pm, closed on national holidays and January 31st. Budget two to three hours to move between all four locations. A combined ticket covers them all. Email sangimignano@galleriacontinua.com to arrange group visits or check current exhibitions before you go.
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What travellers say about Galleria Continua
No tickets required. Fab Ai Wei Wei installation in various media. Really worth the visit. Surprised as we were just wandering along. The hosts were kind and friendly. Definitely worth 30-60 minutes. It’s in an old theatre whose layout was not changed.
Its free and a nice break from medival day! It was very refreshing. And Honest true hidden gem in san giminiano!
A very strong corner interely dedicated to contemporary art, in a mediaeval village. It's not necessary introduce Galleria Continua, it speaks by itself
Just walked by when a light space triggered us to enter the place. Definitely worth a visit! Beautiful place with nice arts.
Wow, one of the best art galleries i ever visited!
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