Palazzo dell'Orologio

Palazzo dell'Orologio brings together medieval tower structures behind a unified facade in Pisa's Piazza dei Cavalieri. One of those towers is associated with Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, whose death became a central episode in Dante's Inferno.

Why it matters

The palace connects the civic history of medieval Pisa with the later transformation of the square. Its architecture also carries a literary memory: the tower known as the Torre della Fame links a political imprisonment with its subsequent retelling.

What to notice

The two principal bodies retain the outline of earlier tower buildings. A central passage joins the composition, with the bell turret above it. The four-light neo-medieval window on the left belongs to the restoration of 1919, not to the original medieval fabric.

Context and history

Ugolino was imprisoned in 1288 with members of his family and died in March 1289. Dante recounted the tragedy in canto XXXIII of the Inferno. Between 1605 and 1608, work under Ferdinando I gave the palace its unified form, connecting the bodies above an existing vault. The bell turret followed in 1696. The Scuola Normale acquired the building in 1968, and it became a library seat in 1982.