pienza was rebuilt from a village called corsignano, which was the birthplace (1405) of aeneas silvius piccolomini (italian: enea silvio piccolomini), a renaissance humanist born into an exiled sienese family, who later became pope pius ii. once he became pope, piccolomini had the entire village rebuilt as an ideal renaissance town. intended as a retreat from rome, it represents the first application of humanist urban planning concepts.the rebuilding was done by florentine architect bernardo gambarelli (known as bernardo rossellino).