Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

openculture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 75 posts

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#61

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

Sharlin wrote: post #50
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I wish I could place a link for reference right now but I’m using my phone and that’s no fun. Isn't that really weird? I realise that most people experience the internet only through their phone browser and social media apps, where it's hard to do many of the common and simple things one can do on a computer, like pasting a link. How is it that those extremely fiddly interfaces have come to be the norm?

Most people never need to manually copypaste links on a mobile device because they can share links, via the browser’s share button, straight to all the apps relevant to them. Use cases like sharing URLs on a legacy non-mobile-oriented web platform such as HN are an extreme outlier. In any case, copying a URL via the browser’s "Share->Copy" or equivalent isn’t IMO too onerous a task even compared to C-l C-c.

Thanks. Well I don't really use my phone so I don't know all this.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#64

Post by seadan83 »

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).

Same reason people build those prepper bunkers. The towers were presumably not there for the general public. Consider as well other castles and sieges. There is a limit of how many people would be allowed in, and everyone in a siege needed to pull their weight. Really, once a town is under siege, the castle is closed, when the town walls are breached, the pillaging happens and the castle does not open its gates. My point is that medieval town defense was not really a communal endeavor per se.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#65

Post by seadan83 »

toyg wrote: post #28
ant6n wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

To add to this, height advantage is enormous in combat. Arguably even more so then than today. A mob trying to storm up a narrow staircase under fire.. there is a strong force multiplier effect.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#66

Post by holoduke »

A bit off topic. But lately i see in my social cocaine feeds a lot of ai generated content with a few days ago exactly this example with an image of zillion towers. Obviously AI generated. But the point is. I dont even know anymore what is real or not. Is this site real or also a fake AI story?

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#67

Post by seadan83 »

klyrs wrote: post #31
timeon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that somehow related?

What Americans call baloney, is properly spelled Bologna ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_sausage ) and named after the city of Bologna. I came here cautiously hoping to find a good meat-based pun, but disappointment is rather the whole experience.

Try reddit instead for the puns!

(My apologies for the snark)

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#68

Post by alephnerd »

Loic wrote: post #52
alephnerd wrote: post #49

The Yemeni city of Shibam is filled with mud high rises that have been around since the 1500s [0]. I'd assume medieval Bologna was similar. [0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibam

Thank you for the link, normally I just "upvote" a good comment, but here, I really recommend others to look at the Wikipedia page, especially the first "View of Shibam" in the gallery at the bottom. I would have never though it was possible to build that high with mud bricks.

I recommend checking out the ruins that litter Northern Arizona as well then.

The indigenous civilization there (before it collapsed in the 1200s and its survivors migrated south and became the Aztec) built multi-storied pueblos, a number of which were even built into the rock.

If you're ever out around Coconico and Flagstaff, you're in for an absolute treat.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#69

Post by SJC_Hacker »

kristopolous wrote: post #38

I've heard many places, although I haven't independently verified it, that it wasn't until the invention of the elevator that towers were really valued for what we use them for today and the high floors were often cheaper.

Towers were mainly defensive structures. A tower would provide a commanding view of the surrounding area, and give archers and missile weapons substantial advantage. They were also somewhat intimidating and a display of wealth/power/prestige.

Like walls they were vulnerable to sapping - digging under the structure and causing it to collapse. More so than walls due to their height. And later, cannon fire. Which is why along with castles they started going out of favour about the 16th century, except as cheap observation posts, such as on borders, and non-military structures such as lighthouses.

As living quarters, much like castles they were not as practical as simpler manor homes. But in a very violent, somewhat lawless era, they were often used by the wealthy/powerful.

Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers

#70

Post by SJC_Hacker »

fallinditch wrote: post #23

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

Yes, in that era it was somewhat lawless interfeudal warfare, arguably as big as a threat as those from other kingdoms/empires. The Italian city states would also fight against each other.

I think part of the motivation for the Crusades, was redirect those feuds elsewhere. And it worked somewhat.

Post reply on HN