The medieval towers of San Gimignano

The number of tower houses was a good indicator of a city’s wealth and prestige in 13th-century Italy. These structures not only retained their original defensive function but also served primarily as large aristocratic residences, built in the city center by the wealthiest families. The height of their structures was meant to reflect the status and importance of their owners. Thus, a veritable competition arose to build the most imposing tower, to the point that city governments were often forced to impose height restrictions. Unfortunately, over the centuries, Italian cities underwent profound changes. Only a small number of the towers that once populated them have survived, confined to those few places that the passage of time, earthquakes, and wars have failed to erase. Among them, San Gimignano, in Tuscany, still offers a vivid picture of what a medieval town must have looked like.

The town on the Via Francigena

Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury, after making a pilgrimage to Rome, noted in his travel diary the 79 places at which he had obtained hospitality¹. Thus, in 990, he left us a vivid snapshot of that route called the Via Romea or Francigena, which allowed faithfuls to reach the tomb of Peter². Among the stops mentioned by Sigeric, there was one called Sce Gemiane, located near a hill known as Monte della Torre.

On that hill, built to guard the road and the pleasant landscapes of Val d’Elsa, stood a fortification belonging to the bishop of Volterra, Adalardo, as attested by a donation from Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, in 929³. The document reports that the castle was “prope Sancto Geminiano adiacente“: in fact, just downhill stood the village, which we have a record of in 949⁴. At that time, the town of San Gimignano was surrounded by a first fortified wall with three main entrance gates⁵.

The birth of the free Commune

Being located along the Via Francigena, San Gimignano could take advantage of trade opportunities. The surrounding fertile lands were used to produce commodities highly sought after by merchants, such as saffron. Hence, it soon attained considerable wealth. In the mid-12th century this allowed the town to free itself from the authority of the bishopric of Volterra. With the appointment of four local consuls, in fact, in 1147 San Gimignano assumed full control of its territory⁶. The following year, the city’s Duomo, or Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta, was consecrated under the name of “Pieve of the People” in the presence of Pope Eugene III⁷. This was, in fact, the birth of the free Commune, even though the election of the first podestà did not take place until 1199.

The town of San Gimignano then experienced a period of rapid expansion that saw the development of the two hamlets of San Giovanni and San Matteo outside the walls. The early 10th-century wall was extended. In the Statute of 1255 we find evidence that a new urban layout, including a perimeter fortification, had been under way for several decades.⁸. In 1239, work began on rebuilding the old Palazzo del Podestà, which acquired its current appearance.

Guelphs and Ghibellines

For many years, the Ghibelline faction, aligned with the policies of nearby Siena, controlled the government of San Gimignano. However, tensions with their Guelph rivals were never far away. At the beginning of the 13th century, there are reports of unrest that prompted the Ghibellines, led by the Ardinghelli family, to attack the homes of the Guelph Salvucci family. This discord continued for decades, until the latter called upon Florence for help. The Florentines laid siege to San Gimignano, tearing down its newly built walls. The reconstruction of the defensive structures would have to wait until 1261, one year after Siena’s important victory at the Battle of Montaperti⁹. The new layout, which also incorporated Monte della Torre and the high ground of Montestaffoli, is what we observe today.

San Gimignano and its towers

The enrichment of the local nobility, fueled by San Gimignano’s flourishing economy, manifested itself in the construction of numerous imposing tower houses, expressions of social and political power. Of the original seventy-two, fourteen survive today, which is still a remarkable number.

The Torre Rognosa and the prohibition of the Podesta

These include the Torre Rognosa, which rises from the Old Palace of the Podestà, reaching a height of fifty-two meters. The structure, erected around 1200, owes its name to its use as a prison. The Torre Rognosa was for a long time the highest tower in the town because the Podestà, in order to limit competition among noble families, imposed in 1255 that no tower should exceed its height¹⁰. Nevertheless, this prohibition was violated by both the Ardinghelli and Salvucci families, who each had a pair of towers built in the heart of the city, standing between Piazza della Cisterna and Piazza delle Erbe. The Commune therefore ordered the demolition of the portions exceeding the height limit.

In any case, by around 1300, the issue had likely become less relevant. The Podestà himself had the fifty-four-meter Torre Grossa erected. The building stands today next to Palazzo Nuovo, formerly Palazzo del Popolo, in Piazza Duomo. Torre Grossa has at its base a corridor with a barrel vault. The upper parapet is decorated with a series of small blind arches.

The other towers of San Gimignano

The elegant façade of the Torre Chigi, with its lower section clad in stone and upper section in brick, also overlooks Piazza Duomo. Near the Arco dei Becci, the southern gate of the 10th-century city walls, are the Torre dei Becci, the Torre dei Cugnanesi and the Torre dei Campitelli. The towers of the Palazzo Pellari, Pettini and Ficarelli are also worth mentioning.

A curious legend, however, concerns the Torre del Diavolo (Devil’s Tower) in Piazza della Cisterna. It is said that, upon returning from a long journey, its owner found it taller than when he had left and, since no worker had been seen working on it, attributed this strange occurrence to the work of the Devil. The tower opens onto the ground floor through a double doorway. This passageway once provided access to the street of goldsmiths. A series of corbels at the top suggest that there was once a wooden balcony.

The church of Saint Francis and the knights orders in San Gimignano

Towers dominate the urban center of San Gimignano, capturing the attention of the visitor who turns his gaze upward. But the walls of the town hide other treasures: they are those of history and symbolism. Walking along Via San Giovanni, for example, one may come across the façade of the former church of Saint Francis, a 13th-century place of worship and a hospice run by the Hospitallers of Saint John. A private owner purchased the church in 1787 and subsequently demolished it, leaving only the main façade intact¹¹.

The church of Saint Francis in San Gimignano

The church consisted of a single rectangular hall, without an apse, covered by wooden beams. Of the original Romanesque façade, inspired by the Pisan style, only the lower part covered with travertine blocks, interspersed with two bands of gabbro, survives. The façade is marked by five blind arches, delimited by small columns with capitals. The entrance portal, rich in symbolism, is located at the level of the central arch. One of the keystones of the archivolt is carved with a ram’s head. As the animal was offered in sacrifice in place of Isaac, so Christ sacrificed himself for all humanity. It is interesting to note that Aries is also the first constellation of the Zodiac. The sign heralds the arrival of spring and, figuratively, the rebirth of the cosmos.

A rope frames the arch of the intrados. The knots placed at the level of the belt course, now at the top of the façade, recall its meaning. The symbolic motif alludes to the bond between God and man. God providing grace and protection from the perils of travel to pilgrims in transit on the Via Francigena. Next to the knots, on the adjacent ashlars, are symbols with Christological significance: some five-petaled flowers and the vesica piscis. In the portal lunette is the cross of the Hospitallers of Saint John, now the Knights of Malta.

San Jacopo al Tempio

This was not the only monastic-chivalric order present in San Gimignano in the Middle Ages. In fact, the church of San Jacopo al Tempio, built near the town gate of the same name, belonged to the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar established a mansio there in the early 13th century, with the intention of assisting pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena. The first mention of it is in a document dated July 1221¹², reporting the presence of a hospitale de Templo. The symbol of the cross pattée still adorns the architrave of the Church of San Jacopo, a testament to that powerful Order, tragically dissolved in 1312.

Samuele Corrente Naso

Notes

1. Sigeric’s Itinerary, British Library, London, catalogued as MS Cotton Tiberius B. V, ff. 23v – 24r. ↩︎
2. In the Actum Clusio of 876, preserved at Abbazia di San Salvatore, the words “via Francigena” appear for the first time. ↩︎
3. Regestum Volaterranum, 20, Pavia, 30 Agosto 929 in F. Schneider, Regestum Volaterranum, Roma, 1907. ↩︎
4. Regestum Volaterranum, 30, Volterra, Settembre 949: “[…] et res pertinentes plebe ecclesia S. Johanni prope burgo Sancti Geminiani in Marciniano”. ↩︎
5. R. Razzi, San Gimignano e le sue mura, San Gimignano, 2020. ↩︎
6. E. Fiumi, San Gimignano, Olschki, Firenze, 1961. ↩︎
7. L. Pecori, Storia di San Gimignano, Firenze, 1853. ↩︎
8. S. Diacciati, L. Tanzini, Lo statuto di San Gimignano del 1255, Firenze, Olschki, 2016. ↩︎
9. Ibidem note 6. ↩︎
10. Ibidem note 8. ↩︎
11. R. Stopani, Chiese medievali della Valdelsa. I territori della via Francigena tra Siena e San Gimignano, Empoli, Editori dell’Acero, 1996. ↩︎
12. Ibidem. ↩︎