Torre Civica

Every alley of medieval Lovere converges on the square where the Civic Tower has stood since the town's communal age. Once the seat of magistrates and a prison, the tower rises about twenty-eight metres and bears frescoes recalling the signorie that ruled the town. Its balcony overlooks Lake Iseo.

Why it matters

The tower and the podestà's palace on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II were the public heart of Lovere for hundreds of years: here sat the commune, the tribunal and the prisons, and in the square stood the pillory where sentences, even capital ones, were carried out. The square was also the marketplace for the wool-cloth trade in which Lovere excelled during the Renaissance. The regional heritage catalogue dates the fortified tower between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and records its later use as the town's clock tower. The tower's successive roles, from defensive structure to civic seat and clock tower, trace Lovere's changing public life.

What to notice

• The frescoes on the tower's outer walls recalling the different signorie that dominated the town, the clearest being the winged lion of Saint Mark, symbol of Venetian rule, dated 1442.

• The tower's interior presents the twelve Ore or Ere di Lovere, a sequence of twelve defining moments in the town's history. The earliest structure rose only to clock height before later expansion. The tower's balcony overlooks the square and the medieval street plan, the northern basin of Lake Iseo and the surrounding mountains.

Context and history

In the communal age the piazza was Lovere's centre of gravity: notarial business was drawn up here, commerce in the substances of the wool industry flourished, and public justice was administered in the shadow of the tower. The lion of 1442 on the wall belongs to the period when the town passed under Venetian domination, one of several lordships whose emblems were painted on the fabric. With time the tower's defensive role faded; it became the town's clock tower, the use recorded in the regional catalogue, while the commune's functions moved elsewhere. The twelve Ere presentation is a modern interpretation of the town's history.