Description of the attraction
Bologna Towers - a complex of medieval buildings in Bologna, the most famous of which today are the so-called Two Towers. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, the number of towers in the city was very large - about 180. However, the reason for their construction remains unclear until the end. According to one version, the richest families in Bologna used them for defensive purposes during the Struggle for Investiture - a confrontation between Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. In addition to the towers themselves, today you can see the fortified gates, which were the gates of the city wall in the 12th century. Unfortunately, the wall was completely destroyed.
In the 13th century, some of the towers were demolished, others collapsed on their own. The remainder housed the prison, city administration, shops and living quarters over the years. In 1917, the Artenizi Tower and the Riccadonna Tower were demolished as part of a city improvement project. Today, fewer than 20 old buildings have survived: the towers of Altabella (61 meters), Coronata (60 meters), Scappi (39 meters), Uguzzoni (32 meters), Guidozagni, Galuzzi and the famous Two Towers - Asinelli (97 meters) and Garisenda (48 meters)).
The erection of the towers was not an easy task - the construction of one 60-meter high-rise took from 3 to 10 years. Each tower had a square base, 5-10 meters deep and fortified with pillars driven into the ground, covered with gravel and lime. The foundation was made of huge selenite blocks. The higher the building was, the thinner and lighter its walls were.
The first to study the history of tower construction in the 19th century was Count Giovanni Gozzadini. It was he who, on the basis of data from the city archives, suggested that at one time there were about 180 skyscrapers in Bologna! For a medieval city, this is an incredibly huge number. True, more recent studies indicate a different figure - from 80 to 100.
Be that as it may, but today these towers, and especially the famous Two Towers, are one of the symbols of the city. The latter stand at the intersection of the roads that lead to the five gates of the old city walls. The highest is called Asinelli, the smaller, but more inclined, is the Garisenda. Their names come from the noble families of Bologna, on whose orders they are believed to have been built between 1109 and 1119. It is also believed that the Asinelli tower originally had a height of only 70 meters, and only later was it completed to its current 97, 2 meters. In the 14th century, this tower housed a prison and a small bastion. At the same time, a wooden structure 30 meters high was erected around it, which was connected to the Garisenda Tower by a hinged bridge. The bridge was destroyed in 1398. In the 17th and 18th centuries, in the Asinelli Tower, scientists Giovanni Batista Riccioli and Giovanni Batista Guglielmini conducted experiments to study the motion of rigid bodies and the rotation of the earth. And during the Second World War, an observation post was located here.
