ADDRESS: Via Sant'Andrea, Lucca
TELEPHONE: 0583 48090
WEBSITE:
Reservations are recommended on weekdays, but are required on weekends and holidays.
Among the approximately 130 medieval towers it is the only one, together with the nearby Tower of the Hours, which remained intact, while all the others were "cut off" or demolished during the 16th century.
The tower is part of an imposing construction commissioned by the Guinigi Bankers and wealthy merchants in the 14th century. Paolo Guinigi, lord of Lucca from 1400 to 1430, refined their austere residence with a tree-lined tower visible from every angle and perspective, a symbol of power but also of rebirth and the beginning of a new era.
Typical example of architecture Romanesque-Gothic LuccaThe tower is built of stone and brick. At the top is a hanging garden. It is impossible to know when the garden was built, but an image contained in the Chronic by Giovanni Sercambi (15th century) shows one, among the many towers of Lucca, crowned with trees.
To reach the terrace you have to climb 25 flights of stairs and 230 stepsA challenging climb rewarded by a spectacular view. On clear days, the city appears in all its beauty: in the shade of the tall holm oaks, you can admire the glimpses of the squares and churches, the tall bell towers, the red roofs of the houses, the narrow streets and all around the landscape of green hills and mountains, the Apuan Alps to the northwest, the Apennines to the northeast, the Monte Pisano South.