Get the latest tech news

The Lost Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars

ks fake, doesn’t it? This implausible Medieval forest of towers, as dense as Manhattan skyscrapers, is our best reconstruction of the town of Bologna at its height, toward the end of the Medieval Guelph-Ghibelline wars. We don’t see many such towers today… or think we don’t, but actually their remnants are all over Italy.

Signs of wealth and prestige, these all-stone buildings were also fireproof, leading to a terrible but effective tactic: take your family, treasures & goods up into your tower then set fire to enemies’ homes and let the city burn around you while you sit safe above. I had calves of steel by spring, but the views from the top looked like someone had put a poster of Florence on the wall except it was a window! In this photo you can see how the brick battlements are a later addition, added to the tower as part of its transformation from private fortress to public.

Get the Android app