Torre del Mangia

The tower was built to be exactly the same height as Siena Cathedral as a sign that the church and the state had equal power.{{refn|group=nb| Even though the 77-m cathedral bell tower is 10 m shorter than the Mangia tower, the cathedral site is about 10 m higher than the town hall site.{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Timothy B.|last2=Steinhoff|first2=Judith Belle|title=Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKyxJL2f88gC&pg=PA20|year=2012|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-0066-0|page=20|quote=...to compensate for the possible perception of inequality between civic and ecclesiastical authorities, the torre del Mangia (the tower of the city hall) was designed to be uniquely tall among Italian town halls and to reach to the same absolute height as the bell tower of the Cathedral, which sat on the highest hill in Siena.}}Google Earth's elevation data}}

The name refers to its first bellringer, Giovanni di Balduccio, nicknamed Mangiaguadagni (‘Profit eater’) either for his spendthrift tendency,{{cite book|last=Birnbaum|first=Stephen|authorlink=Stephen Birnbaum|title=Birnbaum's Italy|url=https://archive.org/details/birnbaumsitaly1900birn|url-access=registration|year=1989|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|isbn=978-0-395-51151-0|page=6358|quote=...a one-time bell ringer, Giovanni di Duccio, who was evidently a man of prodigal habits and better known to the Sienese as Mangiaguadagni.}} idleness{{cite book|last=Stratton|first=Adele|title=DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Italy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=atNvDEiPzyQC&pg=PA340|year=2010|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|isbn=978-0-7566-7275-1|page=340}} or gluttony.{{cite book|author=Harvard Student's Let's Go, Inc.|title=Let's Go: the Budget Guide to Italy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kVY7AAAAMAAJ|year=1999|publisher=St. Martin's Press|page=288|isbn=9780312194888 }}

Image:Siena.Torre.loggia02.jpg

The tower has visually distinct levels, from the bottom:

1. a marble loggia at the base
2. a long red brick shaft
3. a stone section that flares out slightly
4. a short pale-gray upper loggia
5. a marble (uppermost) structure.

The loggia where the tower meets the Piazza del Campo, known as the Cappella di Piazza, was added in 1352 to fulfil a vow to the Holy Virgin by Sienese survivors of the Black Death. The corner pilasters attained their current form in 1378, the sculptures decorating them being executed in 1378–1382 by Mariano d'Angelo Romanelli e Bartolomeo di Tommé. The simple wooden ceiling once covering the loggia was replaced by the current Renaissance marble vault in 1461–1468 by Antonio Federighi, also responsible for the bizarre decorations of the coronation. In 1537–1539 Il Sodoma painted a fresco above the altar, now housed in the town museum in the Palazzo Pubblico.

The upper-middle part in stone was built by Agostino di Giovanni to the design of one Mastro Lippo pittore, probably identifiable with Lippo Memmi. It consists of a parapet resting on corbels. The pronounced petal-like arches between the corbels have led writers to describe the structure as a tulip{{cite book|last=du Colombier|first=Pierre|title=Sienna, and the Siennese Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EczUAAAAMAAJ|year=1957|publisher=Nicholas Kaye|page=17}} or lily.{{cite book|last=Sells|first=Arthur Lytton|title=The paradise of travellers: the Italian influence on Englishmen in the seventeenth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hT5nAAAAMAAJ|year=1964|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=154|isbn=9780598400451 }}

The clock on the lower part of the shaft was added in 1360. There are three bells, the largest one is called the "Sunto" - an abbreviation of assunto, a reference to the assumption of the Virgin. The bell plays a notable role in the celebrations of the Palio.

The walls of the tower are approximately {{convert|3|m|abbr=on}} thick on each side.

A number of towers have been inspired by the Torre del Mangia. These include:

• The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower (nicknamed Old Joe) at the University of Birmingham, UK, was inspired by the Torre del Mangia, and couples a similar design with Victorian redbrick styles.
• A strongly influenced clock tower built for the Waterbury Union Station in Waterbury, Connecticut. Designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1909, it today houses the headquarters of the region's daily newspaper.
• The all-granite Pilgrim Monument at Provincetown, Massachusetts is a scaled-down near replica of the Torre del Mangia, but for its materials and height. Designed by Willard T. Sears, it was built from 1907 to 1910 to commemorate the 21 November 1620 landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims there. The {{convert|77|m|ft|adj=mid|-tall|0}} monument is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.
• The Dock Tower in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, UK. Built in 1852 and standing {{convert|94|m|abbr=on}} tall, the vertical reservoir provided hydraulic power to open the lock gates of the Royal Dock. Although obsolete from 1892 onward, it remains a proud monument to the town and its rich fishing history.
• The tower at the Pine Street Inn at the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, formerly a fire station and fire watch tower, is also modelled on the Torre del Mangia. Boston's tower, which is {{convert|48|m|abbr=on}} tall, designed and built in 1892 by Edmund March Wheelwright, is made of brick like the Italian original and was originally designed as part of the central fire station and used as a fire lookout.Chandler, F. W. (Francis Ward), ed. Municipal architecture in Boston, from designs by Edmund M. Wheelwright, city architect, 1891–1895. Boston : Bates & Guild company, 1898.[https://books.google.com/books?id=8gZZAAAAYAAJ The Brochure series of architectural illustration], Volume 4, Bates & Guild Publishers, 1898. Cf. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8gZZAAAAYAAJ&dq=boston+fire+tower+wheelwright&pg=PA123 p.123]Ralli, Tania (2005), [https://archive.today/20120713192330/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston-sub/access/909874721.html?FMT=ABS&date=Oct+9,+2005 "And Now A Word From Our Shelter: Ads Atop Pine Street Inn Help Pay To Restore It, But Some Ask Where It Will End"], The Boston Globe, October 9, 2005, p. 1[http://wikimapia.org/12650498/Pine-Street-Inn Pine Street Inn (Boston)] - Wikimapia
• The main building of the Spanish business & law school, ICADE, in Madrid, is topped with a clock tower modelled on the Torre de Mangia.

• Palio di Siena
• List of tallest structures built before the 20th century

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Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1348

Category:Towers completed in the 14th century

Mangia

Category:Buildings and structures in Siena

Category:Tourist attractions in Tuscany

Category:Clocks in Italy

Category:1348 establishments in Europe

Category:14th-century establishments in Italy