The Torre della Pagliazza is a squat, horseshoe shaped stone tower squeezed into a corner of the Piazza Santa Elisabetta. It remains the oldest standing structure in Florence. While the rest of the city built upward, this tower served as a…
Medieval Tower Houses of Florence
This walk leads through Florence's narrowest medieval lanes to find the fortified stone tower-houses where rival families once lived and fought. You will see surviving towers from both sides of the Arno, revealing a skyline dominated by private fortresses long before the Renaissance.
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1. Torre della Pagliazza
2. Torre dei Donati Ian XII / XIII secolo
The Torre dei Donati stands out for its sheer, austere height, a stark stone pillar rising above the surrounding rooftops with the jagged, uneven crown typical of Florentine defensive towers. Built by the powerful Donati family in the…
3. Torre della Castagna
The Torre della Castagna rises as a narrow, austere stone tower wrapped in rough masonry, distinguished from its neighbors by the lack of decorative balconies or ornate flourishes. Built in twelve eighty-two, it served as the original…
4. Torre dei Cerchi
The Torre dei Cerchi stands out because it is one of the few surviving medieval towers in Florence that still retains its original, rugged stone base while being grafted onto later residential structures. Built in the thirteenth century,…
5. Torre degli Amidei
The Torre degli Amidei sits in the heart of Florence as a dark, rugged block of stone that feels entirely out of place against the ornate palaces nearby. This tower is the last defiant remnant of the Amidei family fortress. In twelve…
6. Torre dei Gianfigliazzi
The Torre dei Gianfigliazzi stands out on the Lungarno Corsini with its dark, jagged stonework and a small, delicate balcony added centuries after the original construction. This fortress-house belonged to a powerful merchant family who…
7. Torre dei Marsili
The Torre dei Marsili stands out because of the jagged, unfinished look of its upper stones, which seem to break off against the Tuscan sky. This tower served as the stronghold for the powerful Marsili family during the violent factional…
8. Torre dei Belfredelli
The Torre dei Belfredelli stands out as a dark, rugged stone tower rising sharply above the neighboring buildings along the Borgo San Jacopo. It remains one of the few medieval structures in the area that survived the widespread…
9. Torre dei Mannelli
The Torre dei Mannelli rises as a jagged, stone sentinel at the southern end of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. While other towers fell to demolition or war, this one survived because the Mannelli family refused to abandon it. When Giorgio…