Torre dell'Orologio

Marta's clock tower is the surviving remnant of the medieval fortress that once anchored the town's defences. It rises 21 metres above the historic centre, with a Farnese relief, a tile quoting Dante and a carved date whose meaning remains uncertain.

Why it matters

The tower stands within Marta's historic centre and overlooks Lake Bolsena. Together with the houses facing Piazza Castello, it is one of the remains of the former rocca. Its exact construction date is undocumented.

What to notice

The tower has a massive, truncated-pyramidal square base and an octagonal shaft with clock faces on its east and west sides. Above the roof slab, an octagonal turret supports two bells on an iron frame; the larger bell was recast in 1991. A marble relief above the south entrance shows the Farnese arms, including the unicorn-crested helmet and lilies. A ceramic tile on the base quotes Dante's Paradiso, referring to the “malta,” the clergymen's prison in the poem; the reason for the quotation is unknown. Inside the stairway, the number 1253 is carved into the vault rib, possibly indicating its date. The tower's Gothic vault suggests it may have been remodelled.

Context and history

No document records when the tower was built. A tradition compiled by Annibali says that stones from the destroyed lakeside town of Bisenzio were used in its construction under Pope John XXII. Art historian Corrado Ricci disputed this, arguing that the uniform stonework points to a single quarry; the tradition remains unconfirmed. A public clock was installed in 1575, and a seventeenth-century mechanism is preserved. The tower's upper level overlooks Lake Bolsena and its islands.