Torre dell'Orologio

At the southern edge of Piazza della Loggia, above the arcades, Brescia's clock tower has marked the hours since the late 15th century. Its astronomical dial tracks the moon and the zodiac, and two bronze figures known as macc de le ure hammer out the time — small mechanical theatre that still gathers a crowd several times a day.

Why it matters

The Clock Tower is part of the Renaissance ensemble of Piazza della Loggia, one of Brescia’s principal civic spaces. Its astronomical clock, installed in the late fifteenth century, measures time through a dial showing the hours, lunar phases and zodiac. The two bronze automata above it, known as the macc de le ure, connect the mechanism with local civic identity.

What to notice

The clock face displays the hours, phases of the moon and signs of the zodiac. Above it, two bronze figures nicknamed Tone and Batista strike the bell. The tower stands above the south-side arcades of Piazza della Loggia. A stele at its base commemorates the eight people killed in the bombing of 28 May 1974 during an anti-fascist demonstration.

Context and history

The tower belongs to the fifteenth-century remodelling of Piazza della Loggia under Venetian rule. Public clocks were instruments of civic life as well as timekeeping, and the astronomical dial brought the cosmology of the period into the city’s daily rhythms. The square’s later history is also marked by the 1974 bombing; the stele at the tower’s base commemorates its victims.