Torre Matilde

At the mouth of the Burlamacca canal, Torre Matilde is a square stone tower commissioned by Lucca in 1534 to defend its maritime landing. A fortress, prison and wartime jail before becoming a cultural venue, it predates the beach resort and marks Viareggio's origins.

Why it matters

The tower's familiar name is a misattribution: it was ordered by the government of Lucca, not Duchess Matilde di Canossa. A deliberation of 5 June 1534 placed it near the mouth of the Fossa della Selice, now the Burlamacca canal, to defend warehouses and the emerging village around Lucca's maritime landing. The present tower was completed in 1542. The site has a longer defensive history, with fortification of the coast recorded in 1172, when Lucca and Genoa allied against Pisa. Torre Matilde is Viareggio's oldest building and a link between the canal settlement and the later resort.

What to notice

The tower's stone blocks partly came from the demolished walls of the old castle. An extra storey was removed during the 1947 restoration directed by the Soprintendenza of Pisa. The public clock was mounted on the tower no earlier than 1703, having been moved from the nearby palazzo of the Commissario di spiaggia. A loggia linked that official's building to the tower. The canal beside it once carried the warehouses, landing and customs activity that helped the settlement grow.

Context and history

After its military role, the tower became a prison and then a bagno dei forzati, holding forced labourers until the Grand Duke of Tuscany abolished that system in 1847. It housed the Guardia Civica from March 1848 to May 1849 and later served as a prison until the Second World War. The Voto del Comune festival on 15 April commemorates a storm in which lightning struck near the tower's gunpowder store without igniting it. Abandoned after the war, the tower underwent restoration beginning in 1947 and further conservative work from 1970. Today it hosts temporary exhibitions and cultural events.