One of the highlights of my recent trip to Italy was a tour of The Campatelli tower-house, an 18th century palazzo that encompasses one of the famous towers of the Tuscan town of San Gimignano that was the Manhattan of its day! The construction of the original property – the Medieval tower – dates from mid-12th century: a typical tower-house on the Pisan model, initially around 36 feet in height and was then raised up to reach the almost 92 feet we see today.
Photos unless otherwise noted: Timo Rivetti
'San Gimignano delle belle Torri' is located about 35 miles south of Florence, serving as an important relay point for pilgrims traveling to or from Rome on the Via Francigena.
The patrician families that first controlled the town constructed some 72 tower-houses as symbols of their wealth and power. Although only 14 survived time and architectural fashions, San Gimignano retains its striking feudal atmosphere and appearance, today, housing many masterpieces of 14th- and 15th-century Italian art.
According to UNESCO and its status as a World Heritage Center, the town grew around two principal squares: the triangular Piazza della Cisterna, ornamented with a lovely central well, and the Piazza Duomo, dating from the late 13th century with its more intricate layout containing the majority of public and private monuments. After 1353, the town went into a period of decline due to waves of famine and plague that caused a drastic decrease in population. Within a hundred years, the town was downgraded to the level of the other lands under the Florentine control. This status, however, prevented the town from the urban renewal that transformed many Italian historical towns after the Middle Ages.
Photo: UNESCO
The height of the towers grew to display the power of the local families, but in certain cases, such as this one in the Campatelli home, the towers served as actual residences, with the rooms arranged vertically on wooden floors that have today been partially reconstructed.
Over the centuries, various adjacent constructions were added to this tower and by the middle of the 18th century the building resembled a typical palazzo with a Florentine-style intonaco facade.
It was during the early 19th century, that the Campatellis, a landowning family of entrepreneurs, acquired the entire building, transforming it into a traditional upper-middle-class Tuscan house, in which they managed their affairs and income from the lands the family owned just outside the town.
Tourism numbers were blessedly dwindling by my late October visit and so we pretty much had the tour of the house to ourselves. I learned that in 2005, Lydia Campatelli, the last owner of the property, donated the Campatelli Tower-House to Fondo Ambiente Italiano FAI – the National Trust for Italy on condition that it be opened up to the public, together with its furnishings and collections, including pictures by the famous Florentine artist Guido Peyron (1898-1960), Lydia’s eclectic uncle.
Today, the Campatelli Tower-House offers a rich, multi-faceted visitor experience, featuring fascinating content and immersive screenings. There is little to beat walking round a National Trust property to soak in the true flavor and spirit of the lives that real people lived in these specially preserved places. The velvets and bed linens and silk seat coverings, writing desks, book cases, rugs and personal accoutrements of the middle class tell a different story to the grand palaces and the peasant farmhouses more often depicted in our idea of old Italy.
The visit began the attic spaces and the Tower, where we took in a screening of A Thousand Years in San Gimignano, bringing the walls of the house to life beside an alabaster model of the town.
The piano nobile, on the top floor has been remodeled to resemble the way it would have looked in the late 19th century, with original furnishings and objects d’art from Lydia's family, paintings, documents, decorative pieces and photographs collected by the donor, depicting her family life, as well as the more general lifestyle of a typical upper-middle-class Tuscan family of the time.
It was intriguing to hear how the town grew around two principal squares: the triangular Piazza della Cisterna, ornamented with a lovely central well, and the Piazza Duomo, dating from the late 13th century with its more intricate layout containing the majority of public and private monuments. After 1353, the town went into a period of decline due to waves of famine and plague that caused a drastic decrease in population. Within a hundred years, the town was downgraded to the level of the other lands under the Florentine control. This status proved to be a good thing as it prevented the town from the urban renewal that transformed many Italian historical towns after the Middle Ages.
The FAI International project promotes love for Italy at home and overseas through a large and enthusiastic network of activities, events, workshops and concerts as well as protected properties throughout the country.
If you are planning travel to Italy, do look into visiting an FAI property.
