Torre Avanzini

The Avanzini tower is one of Bienno's most substantial surviving medieval towers. Seventeen metres of square stone with walls nearly a metre and a half thick, the Avanzini tower never had a proper door: defenders came and went by ladder through an upper window.

Why it matters

Bienno is called the borgo of the seven towers, and the Avanzini tower is the reason the name convinces. Of the late-medieval defensive structures the village once raised, four survive in nearly perfect condition, and this is the largest of them: seventeen metres high, with a perimeter of about 830 by 780 centimetres and walls 135 centimetres thick, figures published by the village's own tourism site. It stands within the built fabric of the historic centre, illustrating how defensive structures were integrated into Bienno's streets.

What to notice

The regional catalogue describes a square-based tower with few openings and local-stone blocks cut using wooden wedges. There is no ground-level door: the municipal account says access was through a small upper window reached by ladder. A square-based walled enclosure surrounds the tower. A municipal page reports, as rumour, that human remains were found in the narrow gap between the tower's rear face and a neighbouring building.

Context and history

The sources give differing dates: the I Borghi più Belli d'Italia profile gives 1075, while Lombardy's architectural catalogue, drawn up in 2004, dates the standing structure to the fourteenth century. The discrepancy remains unresolved. The regional record classifies it as a casa-torre, a house-tower combining residence and defence, and records it as privately owned and used as a dwelling.