Medieval Tower Research Articles

Bell Towers and Building Workshops in Medieval Rome

Thirty-five medieval bell towers, along with dozens of churches such as S. Clemente, S. Crisogono, S. Maria in Trastevere, and S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, survive as testimony to a boom in ecclesiastical construction in Rome during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. This article focuses on these bell towers, using computer database analysis of their architectural and decorative features to investigate the nature of building workshops in medieval Rome. A comparison of a number of variable features among the bell towers, such as masonry techniques, cornices, and decorative details, uncovered patterns of similarities and differences which may be attributed to workshop practices. Four distinct groups of bell towers are identified on the basis of these features, which I suggest are evidence of the existence of four workshops of brick masons active in bell tower construction in Rome between the early twelfth and the thirteenth centuries. Finally, the article addresses the question of specialization within medieval Rome's building industry and the circumstances behind a rapid decline around 1200 in bell tower building and the fate of the workshops that built them. I observe that by the early thirteenth century, certain prestigious architectural commissions, such as the cloisters at the Lateran and S. Paolo f.l.m., were not given to workshops of brick masons, but to marble workers.

The medieval towers of Greece: A problem in chronology and function

The medieval towers of Greece: A problem in chronology and function

The Frankish Towers of Central Greece

The Medieval towers of the former Duchy of Athens and Thebes—that is, the modern Nomes of Attica, Boeotia, Phokis, and Phthiotis—are described and analysed.With reference to their siting, their architectural details, and any associated features, together with an examination of any relevant documentary material, the dating, the affinities, and the function of the towers within the feudal landscape of mainland central Greece are discussed.

The Seventeenth-Century Church Towers of Battersea (1639) Staines (1631), Crondall (1659) and Leighton Bromswold (?c. 1640)

Antiquarians have long known that the brick tower at the north-east corner of Crondall church, Hants. (PI. ib), erected in the year 1659 to replace a recently dismantled medieval central tower that had become unsafe, may owe at least something of its appearance to that of another tower that had been built twenty years earlier beside the Thames at Battersea (PI. 1a), but which was destined to perish in the wholesale destruction of earlier fabric which preceded the building of the present Battersea church by Joseph and Richard Dixon in 1775-77.

John Bolton's Cinder Oven: An eighteenth century industrial re-use of a mediaeval tower

In one of the two mediaeval towers built to defend the River Wensum in Norwich there is a beehive coke oven. Documentary evidence suggests that this 'cinder oven', as it is known locally, was built in c. 1792 by John Bolton to produce coke for his nearby maltings. Although unused for over a century, it is still intact and in relatively good condition. This short paper describes its history and structure.

John Bolton's Cinder Oven: An eighteenth century industrial re-use of a mediaeval tower

In one of the two mediaeval towers built to defend the River Wensum in Norwich there is a beehive coke oven. Documentary evidence suggests that this 'cinder oven', as it is known locally, was built in c. 1792 by John Bolton to produce coke for his nearby maltings. Although unused for over a century, it is still intact and in relatively good condition. This short paper describes its history and structure.

A Group of Medieval Towers in Tuscania

Although the main purpose of this article has been that of presenting as full and objective an account as possible of the surviving medieval towers in Tuscania, believing that ‘facts’ rarely speak for themselves, I have attempted in the first two sections to set the building of the towers within the context of the social and political changes and topographical transformations that were taking place between the end of the tenth century and the end of the fifteenth century. One result of this has been to indicate how the role of towers themselves underwent change during that period.The towers covered by this survey are all those of medieval date which do not form part of the town walls (for which, see: Andrews and Gibson 1972) and are not church towers (for which, see: Serafini, 1927, 85–7; Raspi Serra, 1971). It may be noted in this connection that the term ‘tower-house’ (Italian, casa-torre) is more properly applied to towers, or tower-like structures, adapted for permanent domestic residence, than to the type of refuge tower to which many of the examples in Tuscania belong. Since the uses to which towers were put often varied during the long span of their existence, however, ‘tower-house’ has on occasion been used as a blanket term for any tower of the types found in this catalogue.

塔の柱間寸法と支割について

The span of storeyed tower decrease in proportion to upper storeies. Generaly the rate of decrese is high in the ancient tower, and it is low since the mediaeval tower. But the rate of decrease in the modern tower does not nearly deffer from the mediaeval tower. Because, since in the mediaeval age the span is set on the basis of Shiwari, and so the decrease is beyond its control by the limitation of the rafter's number. It is later than the architecture of single storey that the rule of Shiwari is completed about the tower. It is difficult that unify several storeyed spans by same Shiwari taking the decrease of each storey into account. In case of five storeyed-tower, at the bigining the rule of Shiwari is used only first storey for example Kaijyusenji tower, next Shiwari of first storey used only to decide full span (span consits of a central and tow side) in over second storey for example Myooin tower, lastly all storey's span is unifyed by same Shiwari for example Itsukushima tower. But several tower use transitional way (each sotrey uses individual Shiwari) until the middle of 15 C. In case of three storeyed-tower, as number of storey is more few than five storeged tower, Shiwari is completed easily.

Excavations at Satrianum, 1966

The ancient and mediaeval site of Satrianum in Lucania is almost equidistant from the town of Tito and the modern settlement of Satriano di Lucania. It appears as a long sugarloaf eminence crowning the ridge that separates the bowl-like valley of Satriano di Lucania and the river Melandro on the southwest from the upper valley of the Marmo to the northeast (pl. 23, fig. I).' The hill of Satrianum and its mediaeval tower are unmistakable