Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
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Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
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Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#2Nowhere as much and as tall, but villages in Georgian mountainous region of Svaneti also used to have many tall towers for defensive purposes. There's still a bunch remaining.
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#3Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#4Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?
Defense and prestige I imagine. Also the article reports that the towers were mostly "panic rooms", they were not lived in, only used in case of emergency.
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#5Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?
The article asserts (plausibly, but does not justify it) that there is a correlation between land value and structure height, since a higher structure has more floor area to be used in that high value area, while in a low land-value area you can do the same thing by spreading out.
The article is actually quite disappointing as it’s really just clickbait content for a video that I have no interest in watching.
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#6Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?
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
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#7Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?
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
There's even a HN post about the closure! Indeed, the two most famous towers Garisenda and Asinelli are closed for renovations for the forseeable future. IIRC, they used to be the same height and had a wooden bridge connecting them at the top. From there, guards could oversee the marketplace and look out for riots.
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#8Why did they build them? Any practical advantage to live so high?
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).
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#9Why 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.
Re: Medieval Bologna was full of tall towers
#10That particular illustration is an artistic interpretation of another older illustration. I wish I could place a link for reference right now but I’m using my phone and that’s no fun.
There’s a YouTube video somewhere that explains all of this and shows a more accurate physical model (or as accurate as can be reasonably expected) that is located somewhere in Bologna, which suggests that there were quite a few towers but not that many and not that tall as shown here. In any case it still had an impressive skyline for its day.
If I remember to do so, I’ll come back here and post a link.