Visiting The Two Towers of Bologna: Asinelli and Garisenda
Bologna is not only “the learned, the fat and the red“. Especially in medieval times, it was also called “la turrita”. If in the first case the three terms refer respectively to the historic university, to the famous culinary tradition, and to the color of the tiles of its buildings (and in the twentieth century also to its predominant political tendency), the fourth adjective derived from the thick presence of towers that sprouted at every corner of the historic center.
Of many, although they no longer exist today, we have certain proofs of their existence, while others have completely lost their traces. Studies by historians have led to different conclusions regarding the numbers, but all agree in affirming that in the moment of maximum prosperity of the city, between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there could be at least one hundred.
How many and which medieval towers are left in Bologna?
Currently, the towers of Bologna still standing are less than twenty, and the two most famous, those at the end of via Rizzoli (formerly via Emilia), in the small square of Porta Ravegnana, have become the symbol of the Emilian capital: the Garisenda and the Tower of the Asinelli. Their function in the Middle Ages was military and territorial control, without however neglecting the more merely symbolic aspect of power and prestige that they represented for the aristocratic family that owned them. This bizarre race towards the sky that saw the most prominent families of the city as protagonists created a first archaic medieval skyline which today is hard to believe.
How high is the Torre degli Asinelli?
The Asinelli tower, the taller of the two, measures 97.2 meters, while the Garisenda, next to it, currently measures 48 meters. The second is the result of a work of “safety” carried out in the fourteenth century following an earthquake, which reduced it by over twelve meters compared to the initial structure. The engineering of the time, combined with the more than eight hundred years that have passed since then, meant that the two towers began to lean fearfully in two opposite directions, so much so that modern architects and engineers were forced to find suitable solutions to safeguard the two buildings and the safety of passers-by. The Garisenda has a degree of inclination (overhang) of about 3.2 meters, while that of the Asinelli “only” of 2.2 meters, which makes it the highest leaning tower in Italy, surpassing even the most famous Tower of Pisa. The Asinelli tower was the protagonist in 1790 of the experiment of Giovanni Battista Guglielmini who, by exploiting the fall of a grave, demonstrated the rotation of the earth about 60 years before the Foucault pendulum experiment.
The spectacular nature of these two eternal guardians of Bologna is a cause of interest for today’s tourists as it was, in ancient times, also for the great Dante Alighieri, so much so that he dedicated some verses of his Divine Comedy (from v. 136 to v. 141 of the XXXI canto of the Inferno) right at the Garisenda, as can be read on a plaque placed on the eastern wall of the tower.
In the last twenty years, the towers have undergone restructuring and redevelopment especially with interventions aimed at containing the inclination and strengthening the base, as well as the relocation of a statue of San Petronio (patron saint of the city) by Gabriele Brunelli removed in 1871 for traffic reasons.
Today only the Torre degli Asinelli can be visited by tourists, who can thus climb the 498 steps to its top to admire a priceless spectacle offered by the view from above of Bologna. Due to the poor state of the stairs inside, the Garisenda is not open to the public. Among the curiosities of the towers – which rise at the beginning of via Zamboni, the university street par excellence – there is the tradition that prevents students from climbing to the top of the Asinelli, on pain of not reaching the degree.
How much does it cost to climb the towers of Bologna?
The Two Towers are located in Piazza di Porta Ravegnana 1, Bologna.
Tower of the Asinelli
Admission: 5 euros (reduced 3 euros). Reservations are made on the website or at Bologna Welcome in Piazza Maggiore. Green Pass Obligation.
Hours: from April 27, every day. Four entrances per hour (at 00, at 15, at 30, and 45), first admission at 10 am, last at 6.15 pm.
From 2 November, every day. Four entrances per hour (at 00, at 15, at 30, and 45), first admission at 10 am, last at 5 pm.
Garisenda Tower
The Garisenda cannot be visited.
