The Towers of Bologna are a group of medieval structures in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The two most prominent ones remaining, known as the Two Towers, are a landmark of the city.

History

Between the 12th and the 13th century, Bologna was a city full of towers. Almost all the towers were tall (the highest being 97m), defensive stone towers. Besides the towers, there are still some fortified gateways (''torresotti'') that correspond to the gates of the 12th-century city wall (''Mura dei torresotti'' or ''Cerchia dei Mille''), which itself has been almost completely destroyed. The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is that the richest families used them for offensive/defensive purposes during the period of the

Investiture Controversy The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monast ...

. In the 13th century, many towers were taken down or demolished, and others simply collapsed. Many towers have subsequently been utilized in one way or the other: as

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

, city tower, shop or residential building. Still, the towers remained a famous sight of Bologna throughout the later periods; even

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

mentioned some of the towers in his ''Inferno''. The last demolitions took place during the 20th century, according to an ambitious, but retrospectively unfortunate, restructuring plan for the city; the Artenisi Tower and the Riccadonna Tower at the ''Mercato di mezzo'' were demolished in 1917. Fewer than twenty towers can still be seen in today's Bologna. Among the remaining ones are the Azzoguidi Tower, also called ''Altabella'' (with a height of 61 m), the Prendiparte Tower, called ''Coronata'' (60 m), the Scappi Tower (39 m), Uguzzoni Tower (32 m), Guidozagni Tower, Galluzzi Tower, and the famous Two Towers: the Asinelli Tower (97 m) and the Garisenda Tower (48 m).

Construction

The construction of the towers was quite onerous, the usage of

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

notwithstanding. To build a typical tower with a height of 60 m would have required between three and ten years of work. Each tower had a square cross-section with

foundations Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

between five and ten meters deep, reinforced by poles hammered into the ground and covered with

pebble A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominant ...

and

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

. The tower's base was made of big blocks of

selenite Selenite may refer to: Substances containing selenium *A selenium-containing anion or ionic compound with the SeO32− anion: **Selenite (ion), anion is a selenium oxoanion with the chemical formula SeO32− ***Selenous acid, the conjugate acid, w ...

stone. The remaining walls became successively thinner and lighter the higher the structure was raised, and were realised in so-called "''a sacco''"

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

: with a thick inner wall and a thinner outer wall, with the gap being filled with stones and mortar. Usually, some holes were left in the outer wall as well as bigger hollows in the selenite to support

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely use ...

s and to allow for later coverings and constructions, generally on the basis of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

Number

The towers must actually have crowded Bologna in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

and there has been considerable debate about their peak number before the first ones were demolished to avoid collapse or for other reasons. The first historian to study the towers of Bologna in a systematic way was Count

Giovanni Gozzadini Giovanni Gozzadini (15 October 1810 – 25 August 1887) was an Italian archeologist. The last male heir of a noble family in Bologna, that had given the city men-at-arms, doctors, and jurists, Giovanni was a highly educated man in other areas su ...

, a senator of the Italian kingdom in the 19th century, who studied the city's history intensively, not least to raise the prestige of his home town in the context of the now united Italy. He based his analysis mostly on the civic archives of

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

s, attempting to arrive at a reliable number of towers on the basis of documented ownership changes. His approach resulted in the extraordinary number of 180 towers, an enormous amount considering the size and resources of medieval Bologna. More recent studies pointed out that Gozzadini's methodology might have led to multiple counts of buildings, which could have been referred to in legal documents by different names, depending on the name of the family who actually owned it at a given moment. More recent estimates reduced therefore the number to a total between 80 and 100, where not all towers existed at the same time.

Two Towers

The most famous pair of towers are located at the intersection of the roads that lead to the five gates of the old ring wall (''mura dei torresotti''). This was the site of the early medieval Gate to the Via Emilia, the Porta Ravennate, now remembered by the name of the adjacent

Piazza di Porta Ravegnana The Piazza di Porta Ravegnana (originally Porta Ravennate) is a city square in the central of Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The Piazza, located some four blocks east of the Piazza Maggiore and Cathedral of Bologna, is the site of the ...

. The taller tower is called the ''Asinelli'' while the smaller but more leaning tower is called the ''Garisenda''.

List of the still existing towers and gateways

Towers

Bologna, torresotto di strada castiglione 02

* Accursi Tower (''Torre Accursi'' or ''Torre dell'orologio'') - P.zza Maggiore * Agresti Tower (''Torre Agresti'') - P.zza Galileo * Alberici Tower (''Torre Alberici'') - Via S. Stefano - P.zza della Mercanzia * Arengo Tower (''Torre dell'Arengo'') - Piazza Maggiore * Asinelli Tower (''Torre degli Asinelli'') -

Piazza Ravegnana A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

, 82 * Azzoguidi Tower (''Torre Azzoguidi'' or ''Torre Altabella'') - Via Altabella, 7 * Bertolotti-Clarissimi Tower (''Torre Bertolotti-Clarissimi'') - Via Farini, 11 * Carrari Tower (''Torre Carrari'') - Via Marchesana * Catalani Tower (''Torre Catalani'') - Vicolo Spirito Santo * Conoscenti Tower (''Torre Conoscenti'') - Via Manzoni, 6 (cortile del Museo Civico Medioevale) * Galluzzi Tower (''Torre Galluzzi'') - Corte Galluzzi * Garisenda Tower (''Torre Garisenda'') -

* Ghisilieri Tower (''Torre Ghisilieri'') - Via Nazario Sauro * Guidozagni Tower (''Torre Guidozagni'') - Via Albiroli 1-3 * Lambertini Tower (''Torre Lambertini'') - Piazza Re Enzo * Lapi Tower (''Torre Lapi'') - Via IV Novembre * Oseletti Tower (''Torre Oseletti'') - Strada Maggiore, 34-36 * Prendiparte Tower (''Torre Prendiparte'' or ''Torre Coronata'') - Via S. Alò, 7 * Scappi Tower (''Torre Scappi'') - Via Indipendenza, 1 * Toschi Tower (''Torre Toschi'') - P.zza Minghetti dietro Casa Policardi * Uguzzoni Tower (''Torre Uguzzoni'')' - Vicolo Mandria, 1

Gateways

* Castiglione Gateway (''Torresotto di Castiglione'') - Via Castiglione, 47 * Piella Gateway (''Torresotto dei Piella'', or ''Porta Govese'' or ''del Mercato'') - Via Piella, via Bertiera * Porta Nuova Gateway (''Torresotto di porta Nuova'' or ''del Pratello'') - Via Porta Nuova, via M. Finzi * San Vitale Gateway (''Torresotto di San Vitale'') - Via S. Vitale, 56

Descriptions of the Towers by Dante Alighieri

As when one sees the tower called Garisenda from underneath its leaning side, and then a cloud passes over and it seems to lean the more, thus did Antaeus seem to my fixed gaze as I watched him bend... — ''Divine Comedy'', Inferno, XXXI, 136-140

Never can my eyes make amends to me --short of going blind-- for their great fault, that they gazed at the Garisenda tower with its fine view, and --confound them!-- missed her, the worthiest of those who are talked about. — ''Rime'', VIII

References

Footnotes

External links

Associazione Guglielmo Marconi: Le due TorriGoogle Map view of the two towers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Towers Of Bologna Tourist attractions in Bologna Buildings and structures destroyed by arson