Torre Civica

Above Piazza Duomo, the Civic Tower rises over the former bishop's residence. Its bells called civic assemblies, marked the hours and warned of fire, while its cells held debtors and prisoners. The 2015 fire damaged the interior, and restoration retained traces of the blaze.

Why it matters

Torre Civica joined the city's systems of defense, timekeeping and imprisonment in one structure. Prison inscriptions and food hatches preserve traces of its changing functions and former use as a place of detention.

What to notice

• The masonry of ammonitic limestone with walls more than two metres thick, raised around 1150 on the remains of Porta Veronensis, the Roman gateway of Tridentum on the Via Claudia Augusta.
• Inscriptions scratched, probably with rusted nails, by inmates awaiting judgment remain on the walls, along with the hatches through which food was passed. Separate cells held women and debtors.
• The two historic bells of the belfry: the Renga, which summoned citizens to public assemblies, and the smaller Guardia, which struck the hours and gave the fire alarm. A new bell, cast to sound the same pitch, replaced the Renga after the 2015 fire.

Context and history

Over the centuries, the tower shifted from a defensive structure to a prison associated with the adjoining tribunal. Documents from 1224 mention bells; a record of 1321 names a keeper of prisoners, and the tower served for detention alongside Torre Vanga and Torre della Tromba into the nineteenth century. In 1545, for the Council of Trent, the tower gained frescoes of San Vigilio and Santa Massenza by the Veronese painter Gerolamo Fontana together with a new clock; the paintings, restored in 1723 by Antonio Gresta, are now lost. On an August night in 2015 fire gutted the interior and the heat damaged the historic Renga bell. The municipality's restoration consolidated the walls, added a steel staircase and preserved the burn marks.