Description
The Torre del Mangia is Siena's civic tower, about 88 meters tall, rising next to the Palazzo Pubblico in Piazza del Campo.
It is built of red brick with a white travertine crown, and from its top you see the square, the terracotta roofs and the hills around the city.
The climb is part of the experience. From the Cortile del Podestà a narrow staircase leads first, after 110 steps, to a small terrace with a view over the square. To reach the bell chamber you climb another 242.
At the top, the crenellated crown, designed, it seems, by Lippo Memmi, Simone Martini's brother-in-law, was meant to make the tower more elegant than all the others in the city.
Work was completed in 1348, shortly before the Black Death. The first official recognition dates from 1338; the designers were probably the Perugians Minuccio and Francesco di Rinaldo.
The base rests on a single block of tuff, very hard and elastic: in 1798 an earthquake made it sway, but the tower was unharmed.
Halfway up, above the palace terrace, is the clock, installed in 1360 by Bartolomeo Guidi: the first one cost 858 florins.
At the top hangs the Campanone, called "Sunto", recast in 1665 and 2.34 meters tall. It has a crack along the rim and a hoarse sound: rung by hand only on Palio days, for the Sienese it announces the festival.
The name comes from a bell ringer, Giovanni di Balduccio, known for his vices and for squandering money, above all at the table: they called him "Mangiaguadagni" ("Eat-the-earnings"), then just "Mangia". After him an automaton struck the hours, and the automaton too was called Mangia.
According to Bianchi Bandinelli, the tower reaches the same height as the cathedral's bell tower, even though it starts from lower ground: religious power and civil power in balance.
The statue of the Mangia was taken down from the top in 1780 and ended up in a storeroom. In 1824 it was taken to a governor's villa to decorate its lake. A century later his great-nephew found it in a ditch, armless, and gave it to the city. Today it stands in the Cortile del Podestà.
The tower's charm has crossed the seas: the tower of the University of Birmingham resembles it, and the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown and a building in Madrid also took inspiration from it.
Don't miss
• The climb to the top.
• The Campanone.
• The statue of the Mangia in the Cortile del Podestà.
Did you know?
• At its base the tower rests on a cell dug into the tuff, where according to tradition those condemned to death spent their last night.
• In 1460 lightning knocked down some crenellations and shifted the statue of the Mangia; a lightning rod came only at the end of the eighteenth century.
It is built of red brick with a white travertine crown, and from its top you see the square, the terracotta roofs and the hills around the city.
The climb is part of the experience. From the Cortile del Podestà a narrow staircase leads first, after 110 steps, to a small terrace with a view over the square. To reach the bell chamber you climb another 242.
At the top, the crenellated crown, designed, it seems, by Lippo Memmi, Simone Martini's brother-in-law, was meant to make the tower more elegant than all the others in the city.
Work was completed in 1348, shortly before the Black Death. The first official recognition dates from 1338; the designers were probably the Perugians Minuccio and Francesco di Rinaldo.
The base rests on a single block of tuff, very hard and elastic: in 1798 an earthquake made it sway, but the tower was unharmed.
Halfway up, above the palace terrace, is the clock, installed in 1360 by Bartolomeo Guidi: the first one cost 858 florins.
At the top hangs the Campanone, called "Sunto", recast in 1665 and 2.34 meters tall. It has a crack along the rim and a hoarse sound: rung by hand only on Palio days, for the Sienese it announces the festival.
The name comes from a bell ringer, Giovanni di Balduccio, known for his vices and for squandering money, above all at the table: they called him "Mangiaguadagni" ("Eat-the-earnings"), then just "Mangia". After him an automaton struck the hours, and the automaton too was called Mangia.
According to Bianchi Bandinelli, the tower reaches the same height as the cathedral's bell tower, even though it starts from lower ground: religious power and civil power in balance.
The statue of the Mangia was taken down from the top in 1780 and ended up in a storeroom. In 1824 it was taken to a governor's villa to decorate its lake. A century later his great-nephew found it in a ditch, armless, and gave it to the city. Today it stands in the Cortile del Podestà.
The tower's charm has crossed the seas: the tower of the University of Birmingham resembles it, and the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown and a building in Madrid also took inspiration from it.
Don't miss
• The climb to the top.
• The Campanone.
• The statue of the Mangia in the Cortile del Podestà.
Did you know?
• At its base the tower rests on a cell dug into the tuff, where according to tradition those condemned to death spent their last night.
• In 1460 lightning knocked down some crenellations and shifted the statue of the Mangia; a lightning rod came only at the end of the eighteenth century.