Towers of Bologna
The medieval gender towers are a landmark of the city of Bologna . A special feature are the leaning towers Garisenda and Asinelli standing next to each other .
Gender towers
Numerous towers were built in the city between the 12th and 13th centuries (some sources report 180 towers). It is not yet clear why so many towers were built, but it is believed that the wealthiest families used them as a means of attack and defense during the investiture controversy.
In addition to the towers, some torresotti have been preserved, small fortifications on the ancient walls from the 12th century (mura dei Torresotti o dei Mille) , which were almost completely destroyed.
During the 13th century, many towers were either dragged down or dismantled, and others collapsed. Later they served as various facilities: dungeons, town towers , shops, apartments. Most recently, towers were dismantled in the 20th century as a result of an ambitious and - from today's perspective - unsustainable urban renewal. The Artemisi and Riccadonnadie towers, which were located in the Mercato di Mezzo district next to today's leaning towers, were blown up in 1917.
Almost twenty of the numerous towers that adorned the city of Bologna in ancient times have been preserved today. These include the Azzoguidi tower, called Altabella (61 meters high), the Prendiparte tower, called Coronata (60 m), the Scappi (39 m), Uguzzoni (32 m), Guidozagni, Galluzzi and the famous Asinelli (97 m) and Garisenda (48 m).
In the modern era, the city was enriched by the towers in the exhibition area (Fiera District), which the Japanese architect Kenzō Tange planned, and which draw on the city's medieval building tradition.
Construction techniques
Despite the obligation of the inherited subjects , the construction of the towers was very expensive. The towers had a square ground plan with foundations 5–10 meters deep, consisting of piles that were driven into the ground covered with pebble and limestone.
The corner pillars of the towers were then built with huge stone blocks of selenite and the rest of the structure was built with thinner and lighter walls in shell construction, i.e. H. built with a very thick inner wall and a much thinner outer wall. The inner cavity was then filled with mortar and stones.
Holes are generally visible in the exterior walls from scaffolding set into the masonry during erection, which was left open to allow scaffolding for repairs.
The two leaning towers
The two leaning towers, the symbol of the city, are located at the intersection of the paths that lead to the five gates of the old city walls of the Torresotti. The names Torre Asinelli (the higher tower) and Torre Garisenda (the smaller, leaning tower) come from the families who had commissioned their construction in 1109–1116 and 1110, respectively. Both towers were originally about the same height and connected by a covered bridge (destroyed in a major fire in 1399), and they also had accessible wooden surrounds on different levels. In 1488, on the instructions of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, today's renovation called Rocchetta was built at the foot of the higher tower . A small church at the foot of the lower tower was later removed.
Asinelli tower
It is believed that the Asinelli Tower was originally around 60 meters high and was only later increased to its current 97.20 m (with a 2.20 m slope).
The community acquired the tower in the 14th century and converted it into a dungeon and a castle. The tower suffered severe damage because of the many lightning bolts that often caused fires or small disruptions, for example in 1185, 1399, 1413 or 1726. In 1824, a lightning protection system was installed according to the instructions of Francesco Orioli .
Scientists Giovanni Riccioli (1640) and Giovanni Battista Guglielmini (in the following century) used the tower as a laboratory for research on gravity and the rotation of the earth. In 1878 a certain Luciano Monari attracted numerous onlookers by climbing the outer wall.
At the end of the 20th century a television antenna was installed on the top by the Italian State Broadcasting Corporation.
Garisenda Tower
The smaller Garisenda tower is noticeably crooked. Today it has a height of 48 m and a slope of 3.20 m. When the construction was finished it was about 60 m high. Because of a fall in the ground that made it dangerously angled, it was dismantled in the 14th century. The weavers' guild bought the tower in the 15th century and kept it until the end of the 19th century. Then it passed into community ownership.
The Garisenda has already been mentioned several times by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy and in the Rime , which testifies to the poet's stay in the city. In the Divine Comedy (Hell, XXXI, 136-140) it says:
- As Carisenda, seen from under the slope,
- Seems to lean forward and move himself
- When clouds send the wind towards you
- Antaeus seemed to be moving now
- When he bent down ...
The towers and the statue of Saint Petronius in the snow
The stairwell inside the Asinelli Tower
Towers and torresotti on the city walls
Towers
- Torre Accursi (called dell'orologio ) - Piazza Maggiore
- Torre Agresti - P.zza Galileo
- Torre Alberici - Via S. Stefano - P.zza della Mercanzia
- Torre Asinelli - P.zza Ravegnana, 82
- Torre Azzoguidi (so-called Altabella) - Via Altabella, 7
- Torre Bertolotti-Clarissimi - Via Farini, 11
- Torre Carrari - Via Marchesana
- Torre Catalani - Vicolo Spirito Santo
- Torre Conoscenti - Via Manzoni, 6 (in the courtyard of the Museo Civico Medioevale)
- Torre dell'Arengo - Piazza Maggiore
- Torre Galluzzi - Corte Galluzzi
- Torre Garisenda - P.zza Ravegnana
- Torre Ghisilieri - Via Nazario Sauro
- Torre Guidozagni - Via Albiroli 1-3
- Torre Lambertini - Piazza Re Enzo
- Torre Lapi - Via IV Novembre
- Torre Oseletti - Strada Maggiore, 34-36
- Torre Prendiparte (called Coronata) - Via S. Alò, 7
- Torre Scappi - Via Indipendenza, 1st floor
- Torre Toschi - P.zza Minghetti behind Casa Policardi
- Torre Uguzzoni - Vicolo Mandria, 1
Torresotti
- Torresotto di Castiglione - Via Castiglione, 47
- Torresotto di porta Nuova or del Pratello - via Porta Nuova, via M. Finzi
- Torresotto dei Piella or porta Govese or del Mercato - via Piella, via Bertiera
- Torresotto di S. Vitale - Via S. Vitale, 56
Torresotto from Castiglione
Torresotto from San Vitale, photographed by Paolo Monti
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literature
- Giancarlo Roversi (Ed.): Le torri di Bologna. Quando e perché sorsero, come vennero costruite, quante furono, chi le innalzò, come scomparvero, quali esistono ancora. Grafis Edizioni, Casalecchio di Reno 1989.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Tiziano Costa: Torri di Bologna . In: Collana di storie bolognesi . Costa Editore, Bologna 2008, ISBN 978-88-89646-43-4 , pp. 7-23 .
Coordinates: 44 ° 29 ′ 39.5 ″ N , 11 ° 20 ′ 48.5 ″ E