.San Gimignano - the towers

Once upon a time it was said that San Gimignano had 72 beautiful towers. Only 25 were standing up in 1580. Today they are 14; many others are cut of or are part of buildings. Their architecture is a sign of surety, offense and pride. The first tower (called Rognosa), 51 metres high, was that of the Podesta and served as office, law court and prison.

Later on were built the tower of the Commune, or Big Tower, at side o the new Palace of the Podesta, embellished, as we can see, with many coats of arms, which remind the various Podestas who contributed to erect it. It is 54 m. high. Then noble families started to built their own towers. They were real fortress-houses with a minimum of comfort. Solid, fire-proof, impenetrable to invasion, light and comfort were sacrificed to safety. The holes visible on the facade were used to throw flying wood bridges to join other friendly families or to attack enemy families. The statute of 1255 prohibited the construction of towers higher than the «Rognosa». It seems that the first family to infringe this order was that of Salvucci who did not build a tower higher than that of the Commune, but two whose height summed up was far superior to that of the public power's tower.

The same made the Ghibelline family of Ardinghelli, enemy of Salvuccis. These two couples of towers are at left and right side of the Cathedral square and are called «twin towers».

«At San Gimignano civic buildings offer a great variety of types, a set of samples of structural and decorative motifs pertaining to the Tuscan architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth conturies: there are Sienese mullioned windows, Florentine windows, Pisan arches and majolica plates, Lucchese and Sienese brick arched lintels, pointed arcade crownings surmounted by battlements and juting out penthouses. There is also some oriental sign coming from Pisa, with which San Gimignano had strong commercial links, or directly from the East where Sangimignanese traders, alone or in connection with those of Pisa and Florence, had shops for the sale of saffron, honey and other wares. Rightly it was said that San Gimignano is a museum of mediaeval Tuscan houses.» (San Gimignano, Historical Hints by Giovanni Cecchi-ni - Artistic notes by Enzo Carli, Siena, 1962).

Let's visit the town starting from Cathedral Square as far as the various itineraries are concerned (they can be walked along in a few hours).
Going up the stairs leading to the Church, if we turn our back to the Cathedral, in front of us, on a deep vault, we see the Tower of the Podesta (called Rognosa, 51 metres high). It dates back to 1200 and dominates the ancient Podesta Palace. At its side the elegant 1208's Chigi Mansion (formerly Useppi) with tower and adjacent to it a mediaeval house with mullioned windows. On the right side dominates the 54 m. high Town Tower called Big Tower as it is higher than all the others. Started on the 21 August 1300 (four months after the visit of Dante) it was finished in 1311. At the side of the Town Hall (deserving a visit) there is the People Loggia finished in 1347 on the ground of Ardinghelli family who had their house pulled down after their attempt to take possession of the power over the town.