Torre dell’Orologio Site Features

The tower is a square brick structure pierced at ground level by the arched passage that still carries the road.

Above the arch the wall face is plain brick, with the clock face set into it and a small bell stage at the top.

Its form is that of a gate tower, not a campanile: it is wider and squatter than a bell tower, and its structural job was to hold a gate and a guard, which is why the walls are thick and the openings few.

The Torre delle Campane, the separate bell tower nearby, is the other medieval survival, and the two together are what remains of the fortified town outside the Rocca.

The passage underneath

The road still goes through the gate, which is what makes the tower a piece of the working town rather than a monument.

The clock

A later civic addition to a defensive structure, and the reason for the tower's modern name.

The pairing with the Rocca

The tower closes one end of Piazza Castello and the moated fortress the other -- the two are best seen as one thing.