Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers • Hacker News Board

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#21

Post by TulliusCicero » Sun, May 26, 2024, 12:58 AM UTC

sidewndr46 wrote: post #20

2-3-7-43-1807 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Google Earth might be more wrong than the illustration. One of the two Towers of Bologna is 97m. On GE it looks less than that. 97m is more than 33 stories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna

Why do people attempt to use "stories" as a measurement of height? There is no universal agreement for what a "story" is. 97 meters is in fact 97 meters.

Because it's evocative, it's easier to imagine what it looks like.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#22

Post by Phrenzy » Sun, May 26, 2024, 1:52 AM UTC

Tade0 wrote: post #9

novaRom wrote: post #3

Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?

I lived there for several years and the prevailing notion among the locals seems to be status. Then again part of being a true citizen of Bologna is to have incorrect information on some of the landmarks there.

Is the origin of using the word, baloney, to imply a statement is untruthful?

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#23

Post by fallinditch » Sun, May 26, 2024, 2:44 AM UTC

There are also towers in the Mani peninsular in Greece. They were built to defend against not only invaders and bandits but also neighbors due to vendettas. A local told me that blood feuds between families could often last for many generations.

http://mani.org.gr/en/pir/towers.htm

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#24

Post by kdazzle » Sun, May 26, 2024, 2:59 AM UTC

sidewndr46 wrote: post #20

2-3-7-43-1807 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Google Earth might be more wrong than the illustration. One of the two Towers of Bologna is 97m. On GE it looks less than that. 97m is more than 33 stories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna

Why do people attempt to use "stories" as a measurement of height? There is no universal agreement for what a "story" is. 97 meters is in fact 97 meters.

I think the universal agreement is actually to measure things in football fields

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#25

Post by llm_trw » Sun, May 26, 2024, 3:07 AM UTC

kdazzle wrote: post #24

sidewndr46 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people attempt to use "stories" as a measurement of height? There is no universal agreement for what a "story" is. 97 meters is in fact 97 meters.

I think the universal agreement is actually to measure things in football fields

Now if we could only agree if we should use soccer or handegg field sizes.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#26

Post by llm_trw » Sun, May 26, 2024, 3:09 AM UTC

Phrenzy wrote: post #22

Tade0 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there for several years and the prevailing notion among the locals seems to be status. Then again part of being a true citizen of Bologna is to have incorrect information on some of the landmarks there.

Is the origin of using the word, baloney, to imply a statement is untruthful?

According to some citizen of Bologna: Yes.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#27

Post by toyg » Sun, May 26, 2024, 4:03 AM UTC

Phrenzy wrote: post #22

Tade0 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there for several years and the prevailing notion among the locals seems to be status. Then again part of being a true citizen of Bologna is to have incorrect information on some of the landmarks there.

Is the origin of using the word, baloney, to imply a statement is untruthful?

I expect it comes from reactions to earlier attempts to pass US-made sausages for actual mortadella (aka ”bologna"), as in "that's not Bologna, that's !", which was then shortened to "that's baloney".

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#28

Post by toyg » Sun, May 26, 2024, 4:10 AM UTC

ant6n wrote: post #8

peterlk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we stayed in Bologna for a month, we were told that it was used defensively. You can see a very long ways from the top of the central tower (I think it’s closed at the moment). It would have been nearly impossible for an army to approach Bologna without several days for Bologna to prepare

If you just need it to view far, then why build more than the primary tower, a backup, and perhaps a secondary backup (in a pinch, you don’t want to be caught without a secondary backup).

It's a combination of that and status. Wealthy families would build tall towers as a way to protect themselves: if you think you're at risk of getting wacked by a disgruntled competitor, you take to live in your tower for a few months, where nobody can sneak in. From that, it became a competition to show off the biggest pen1$-- sorry, tower; and then someone probably figured that the benefit of height could be used for the common good as well, installing city guards on the tallest towers.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#29

Post by vundercind » Sun, May 26, 2024, 4:54 AM UTC

llm_trw wrote: post #25

kdazzle wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the universal agreement is actually to measure things in football fields

Now if we could only agree if we should use soccer or handegg field sizes.

Handegg, because there’s an actual standard size for them.

Which is a worse decision for a sport but makes them better for measurement.

Soccer’s trying to make their sport worse by standardizing, but they’re not there yet.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#30

Post by pachico » Sun, May 26, 2024, 4:54 AM UTC

Allow me to say that if you can, please, go visit Bologna. It's still one of the few places where tourism won't affect much your own experience.

I had the tremendous luck of studying there 25 years ago when you could still bump into Umberto Eco having a coffee at the Students' Bar, when walking via Zamboni agglutinated most of the university life.