Antonio da Sangallo the Elder (1455–1535), a military architect in his younger years, is best known for the major work of his life, the pilgrimage church of the Madonna di San Biago at Montepulciano, a tiny but important cultural centre of Tuscany. An ideal central-plan church (i.e., one symmetrical about a central point) of the High Renaissance, it also is a Greek-cross plan built of travertine and designed with three facades; the west tower was never completed, but the east tower stands, and, with the church placed on a peak overlooking the valley, it is a majestic sight.