Torre di Redde

Torre di Redde
	View from the south
Alternative name (s):	Torre di San Clemente
Creation time :	around 1300
Conservation status:	ruin
Construction:	Quarry stones, corner bosses
Place:	Vaglio TI
Geographical location	46 ° 3 '7.8 " N , 8 ° 57' 39.3" E Coordinates: 46 ° 3 '7.8 " N , 8 ° 57' 39.3" E ; CH1903: seven hundred and seventeen thousand eight hundred and seventeen / 101213
Height:	616.05 m above sea level M.

The Torre di Redde (Tower of Redde) is of medieval origin and stands in the forest south of the village of Vaglio in the canton of Ticino . The residential tower stands at a height of 619 m above sea level. M. and is also called «Torre di San Clemente».

history

The Redde Tower was part of a fortified house from the 13th century. It was built by the Rusca family from Como , who settled in Ticino south of Monte Ceneri to monitor the route across the Alps.

The tower is documented in 1310. It belonged to the Redde settlement, which consisted of a village, a fortified house and a small church. In 1335, Redde appears in a list of the city of Como as a rural settlement with its own weight and measurement units. Traces of earlier human activity can be seen in the area: crumbling terracing walls, foundation walls of individual buildings and old tracks. The village was abandoned in the 16th century, presumably because of the plague .

The small baroque chapel is dedicated to St. Clement and is about 300 meters from the tower. It is mentioned in a document in the 14th century.

description

The layered masonry, the more carefully executed corner bosses and the arched door of the high entrance on the south side point to a time of origin around the turn of the 12th to the 13th century. The more than one meter thick and about fifteen meter high masonry of the four-story tower has been preserved. The inside cannot be entered.

The tower was covered with a flat tent roof, remains of the stone slab covering on the top of the wall can still be seen. The individual floors were partially connected to one another by wooden internal and external stairs and arcades. Wall niches, a pouring stone drain and a smoke vent are evidence of its former habitability. On the north side there was a building that has now disappeared, in the south there was a rectangular building made of mortar masonry, presumably a later-built residential building. Nothing can be seen of a ditch mentioned in a document in the 14th century.

In 1998/99 the tower was restored under the direction of the architect Ivo Trümpy. It is owned by the Torre di Redde Foundation.

Every year in September the medieval “Festa di Redde” has been taking place between the tower and the church for several years. The square is a popular meeting place with its fire pits and numerous seating areas.