Description
The Torre del Campanile is the bell tower of Pistoia Cathedral: it stands apart from the church, beside the left side of the façade, on Piazza del Duomo. Almost 67 metres tall to the tip of its cross, it is the landmark of the whole square.
Look at it from the bottom up, because it changes character as it rises. The first three storeys are massive and windowless; then two storeys open up with Romanesque double windows, and three more are lightened by stacked loggias.
At the top, on the ninth storey, is the bell chamber with its brick spire and a small temple-like lantern. The last two storeys carry swallowtail Ghibelline battlements.
The materials alternate in bands: green serpentine marble and local limestone, which give the tower its green and pale stripes. The loggias at the top link it to other Tuscan towers, such as that of the church of San Nicola in Pisa.
The layered look is no accident. According to a widely accepted theory, the bell tower grew out of an old Lombard tower, later remodelled by Giovanni Pisano, as Vasari tells us. The three bands, from the bottom, would be Lombard, Pisan and Pisan-Lucchese.
One detail that catches the eye also supports it: the tower stands unusually apart from the Cathedral of San Zeno. The archives, however, are patchy, and the story remains a hypothesis.
The spire was rebuilt several times after the earthquakes of the late Middle Ages. In the early 20th-century restorations the spire and lantern were rebuilt and the clock face removed, bringing the original double windows of the first storey back to light.
Up there ring six 19th-century bells cast by Terzo Rafanelli of Pistoia, along with a smaller, older one. In a tiny chamber at the very top hangs another, cast in 1314 by Zucchero Lorenzi: it has been striking the hours for more than seven centuries.
Look at it from the bottom up, because it changes character as it rises. The first three storeys are massive and windowless; then two storeys open up with Romanesque double windows, and three more are lightened by stacked loggias.
At the top, on the ninth storey, is the bell chamber with its brick spire and a small temple-like lantern. The last two storeys carry swallowtail Ghibelline battlements.
The materials alternate in bands: green serpentine marble and local limestone, which give the tower its green and pale stripes. The loggias at the top link it to other Tuscan towers, such as that of the church of San Nicola in Pisa.
The layered look is no accident. According to a widely accepted theory, the bell tower grew out of an old Lombard tower, later remodelled by Giovanni Pisano, as Vasari tells us. The three bands, from the bottom, would be Lombard, Pisan and Pisan-Lucchese.
One detail that catches the eye also supports it: the tower stands unusually apart from the Cathedral of San Zeno. The archives, however, are patchy, and the story remains a hypothesis.
The spire was rebuilt several times after the earthquakes of the late Middle Ages. In the early 20th-century restorations the spire and lantern were rebuilt and the clock face removed, bringing the original double windows of the first storey back to light.
Up there ring six 19th-century bells cast by Terzo Rafanelli of Pistoia, along with a smaller, older one. In a tiny chamber at the very top hangs another, cast in 1314 by Zucchero Lorenzi: it has been striking the hours for more than seven centuries.