LEANING CIVIC TOWER, Presentation

Walking through the streets of the old town, you’ll run into a square tower with a steep tilt.

It is the Civic Tower, a building that hides a distant past in its foundation.

In fact, the lowest part may date as far back as the 6th century AD.

This was discovered during technical excavations carried out in the early 1900s, uncovering a hidden part, now sunk into the ground.

The tower is thought to have started tilting from the time it was built, but only in later centuries, after the construction of the highest part, did the phenomenon become more noticeable.

Between 1200 and 1300 the building definitely belonged to a noble family who, as was the custom at the time, heightened the tower so that it would stand taller than those of other prestigious families.

There is no certain data, but after 1250 it probably belonged to the Guiccioli or the Da Polenta family. Perhaps it was Guido Da Polenta himself who had the first bell placed on its summit in 1317.

You should know, in fact, that until 2000, this was a 39-meter or 125-feet high bell tower. As much as 13 meters or 42 feet of the top, including the bells, however, were removed during work to secure the building and a metal reinforcement structure was put in place. During this intervention, two ancient sculptures known in Ravenna as "the Mariola" and "the Horseman" were removed. The first is the bust of a statue that apparently depicts a woman but is difficult to distinguish given its wear and tear, which the people have nicknamed Mariola. The second is probably the fragment of a sarcophagus or tombstone on which a knight was portrayed.

Let me leave you with an interesting fact: The bells of this tower have played a very important role for the citizens of Ravenna for almost 600 years. The structure served as a lookout point to detect enemy attacks or other imminent dangers. The bells were rung by a custodian to warn the population. The last time they were rung was on February 12, 1916, when Ravenna suffered the first air attack in its history.