EyeItalia

Have you ever imagined what Italy would be like without its towers and church bells? For the jet-lagged, sleep-deprived tourist, it might be a godsend but for the locals it would be as if you were blotting out the backdrop and silencing the background music of everyday life. After all, without church bells how can one know what time it is?  Picture it… Italians, never known for their punctuality, would not only be eternally, but now justifiably late!

Most every town in Italy has a tower and many have been standing since the Middle Ages. They are an emblematic part of the urban landscape.  During ancient times of siege they provided protection and stood for strength, power and domination.  Conversely, a church bell tower symbolized the elevation of the human spirit towards the heavens and God.  In the Italian language there are two separate names for the word “tower.”  The word “torre” for “elevated place” traces back beyond Latin and Greek to Asia Minor where the Arabic “tawr” and Hebrew “tur” signify “border” and “frontier.”  The concept of a defense tower was introduced to Italy by the ancient Etruscans (whom coincidently called themselves “Tyrrhenoi”).  The other tower is “campanile” or bell tower, which is similar to the “torre” but has quite a different story. As you read on you’ll see that both types of towers have played interesting roles in ancient and present day Italy.

TOWER ENVY:  MEDIEVAL POWER STRUGGLES

In the Middle Ages, cities throughout Italy experienced a huge surge in population accompanied by strong urban growth.  Bitter rivalry and power struggles were typical between the increasingly rich nobility.  What any decent wealthy family did was build themselves a tower house!  The higher the tower, the richer and more powerful the owner.  The living area within the tower walls occupied only a small portion of the height while above was an empty fortified structure. In times of strife, the family was equipped with the necessary supplies and could easily hold out for months, along with their friends, political allies and private armies. When an enemy family was eventually defeated, by law, their tower was dismantled or outright destroyed.  Alternately, if 2 warring families made peace it was frequently sealed by marriage and the newly-related neighboring tower dwellers were often linked by massive wooden bridges: “strengthening family ties,” so to speak.

MY TOWER’S BIGGER THAN YOURS!

Rome, Venice, Bologna, Florence and Lucca were once virtual pincushions of towers.  At least 2 or 3 towers still remain in each city although subsequent wars and modern progress has destroyed most.  At the height of it’s medieval development, Lucca reportedly had more than 250 towers dotting its skyline.  The Torre Guinigi with oak trees planted on top, is one of three remaining tower houses in Lucca and can still be visited.  Looking down on the town below, you can see the remains of towers on the corners of almost every important nearby palazzo.

San Gimignano is the only example of a truly medieval skyline. Although only 14 of the original 76 towers still stand, from afar it looks like a hilltop cluster of skyscrapers in the middle of the Tuscany countryside.  During the 1200’s no private towers in San Gimignano could exceed the height of the City Hall’s Torre Grossa.  So, in a gutsy act of thinly veiled defiance, the wealthy Salvucci family snubbed their noses at city fathers and erected the original “Torri Gemelli:” side-by-side twin towers that if coupled, would be almost twice as tall as the Torre Grossa!  Eventually cursed with the Black Plague in 1348 (along with the rest of Italy) and then removed from the prosperous Pilgrim’s Route in the 1600’s, the city lost its wealth along with most of its population. San Gimginano literally froze in time. Ironically its past misfortune has made it an architectural treasure.

FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL

“Campana” is root of the word “campanile,” or bell tower. It traces back to the Campania region where Italy’s first bells were produced more than 1,000 years ago.  In ancient times cities were small enough to hear the ringing of a particular bell to announce ordinary daily events:  the opening of the city gates, the beginning of the work day or even calling citizens to arms. Bells in many towns still punctuate the day on the hour and half hour but in a very few places (and they are quickly disappearing) some even chime every 15 minutes, day and night. Talk about bats in the belfry!

Bells continue to play a significant role in modern day life. Years ago during the Second World War, my mother-in-law remembers the ominous tolling of the town’s bells warning of approaching enemy airplanes sending her for cover and shivers up her back.  Not long after I moved to my town, I remember the first time I heard the discordant “Campane dei Morti,” Bells of the Dead, tolling one afternoon announcing a funeral.  I knew just by the strange intervals of notes that something was wrong. I stopped what I was doing and listened and then made a mental note to ask someone what it meant.  I wasn’t surprised to hear the explanation: the bells themselves had already told the sad story.

On a happier note; when Italy won the World Cup Soccer Championship the bells at the nearby Agostinian Church went absolutely berserk at 11:15 p.m.  The soccer-loving monks had decreed a “straordinario” unscheduled nocturnal ringing of the church bells to celebrate the victory.  The town went wild!

MY TOWER’S BETTER THAN YOUR TOWER!

To understand the essential cultural role that Italy’s towers have played over the centuries, read the words and their definitions below:

Campanilismo: Literally “towerism:” an excessive attachment to one’s birthplace.
Campanilista: Literally “towerist:” they who possess an exaggerated amount of local pride.
(Translated from Dizionario Garzanti)

So you see, the tower was so important for the townspeople that it almost had a personality; it measured their every waking hour and pretty much defined their collective identity. A symbol of civic pride, the tower represented, and in some way still represents, the place they call home.

—Lisa Halderman