Torre del Mangia rises from Palazzo Pubblico on Piazza del Campo as Siena's answer to the towers of rival Tuscan hill towns, deliberately built, according to municipal tradition, to exactly match the height of Siena Cathedral's bell tower so that neither religious nor civic power could claim to stand taller. Payments recorded from 1338 through 1349 document its construction under a team of builders, giving it a slender brick shaft topped by a white stone crown designed in part by Lippo Memmi. Its name supposedly commemorates a lazy first bell ringer nicknamed Mangiaguadagni, or eat-the-profits, whose statue still stands nearby. Four hundred narrow steps lead to the top, and the reward at 87 meters is a view that lays out the whole shell shaped Campo below, along with the greater Sienese countryside stretching toward the hills of the Chianti and Crete Senesi.
The tower records Siena’s civic building programme, including a qualified multi-technician construction sequence, later clock and bell functions, and a continuing relationship with Palazzo Pubblico and Museo Civico. It is within the Historic Centre of Siena World Heritage property, not separately inscribed.
Sources and citations (5)
- Terre di SienaTorre del MangiaRead source
- Comune di SienaTorre del MangiaTower identityRead source
- Museo Civico di SienaIl PalazzoPalazzo and museum relationshipRead source
- Visit Siena OfficialTorre del MangiaTower descriptionRead source
- Museo Civico SienaLa Torre del MangiaRead source
