Description
The Lamberti Tower is the tower that dominates Verona at 84 meters, halfway along Piazza delle Erbe. It has been open to the public since 1972: from the top you get a panorama of the city and the Torricelle hills.
It was begun in 1172 and bears the name of the family it belonged to. The oldest part, the lower one, can be recognized by its alternating bands of brick and tuff blocks.
In 1403 a lightning bolt brought the top down: work to rebuild it and raise it started only in 1448 and ended in 1463-1464, with the octagonal bell chamber and its elegant Gothic mullioned windows.
The clock arrived between 1779 and 1798. It was Count Giovanni Sagramoso who paid for it out of his own pocket in 1798, because the one on the nearby Gardello Tower had not worked for a long time.
Inside the chamber are the bells, which for centuries set the rhythm of the city's life. The Rengo, the largest, called the Council and the militia; the Marangona signaled fires and the start and end of work, and takes its name from the "marangon", the carpenter in Veronese dialect.
The Rengo was cast in 1557, weighs more than four tons and has a diameter of 184 centimeters. It is considered one of the finest bells of the Renaissance for its sound and decorations. With the Marangona, the Bajona and the little hour bell it forms a chord of four bronzes.
Up there lived the bell ringers, who also worked as keepers, lookouts and jailers, because the tower often housed a prisoner or two. They were paid little, but had free lodging, paid no taxes and did no military service. We still know the names of some of them.
On November 4, 1918, at 10:30, it was the Rengo that joyfully announced the end of the war with Austria. The concert of bells also rang during the Veronese Easter, the 1797 revolt against the French. At the beginning of the 20th century the job of ringing it passed to the bell ringers of Santa Anastasia.
Don't miss
• The view from the top.
• The Rengo.
• The clock.
Did you know?
• From 1632 to 1797 the bell ringers were the Tanara family: their chronicles record that an elderly woman of the family was incinerated by a lightning bolt while hanging out laundry at a window of the tower.
• From the same window a young man of the family later fell, without suffering any injury.
• The Consolata bell, from 1311, was not put back into use after the recasting of 1833.
It was begun in 1172 and bears the name of the family it belonged to. The oldest part, the lower one, can be recognized by its alternating bands of brick and tuff blocks.
In 1403 a lightning bolt brought the top down: work to rebuild it and raise it started only in 1448 and ended in 1463-1464, with the octagonal bell chamber and its elegant Gothic mullioned windows.
The clock arrived between 1779 and 1798. It was Count Giovanni Sagramoso who paid for it out of his own pocket in 1798, because the one on the nearby Gardello Tower had not worked for a long time.
Inside the chamber are the bells, which for centuries set the rhythm of the city's life. The Rengo, the largest, called the Council and the militia; the Marangona signaled fires and the start and end of work, and takes its name from the "marangon", the carpenter in Veronese dialect.
The Rengo was cast in 1557, weighs more than four tons and has a diameter of 184 centimeters. It is considered one of the finest bells of the Renaissance for its sound and decorations. With the Marangona, the Bajona and the little hour bell it forms a chord of four bronzes.
Up there lived the bell ringers, who also worked as keepers, lookouts and jailers, because the tower often housed a prisoner or two. They were paid little, but had free lodging, paid no taxes and did no military service. We still know the names of some of them.
On November 4, 1918, at 10:30, it was the Rengo that joyfully announced the end of the war with Austria. The concert of bells also rang during the Veronese Easter, the 1797 revolt against the French. At the beginning of the 20th century the job of ringing it passed to the bell ringers of Santa Anastasia.
Don't miss
• The view from the top.
• The Rengo.
• The clock.
Did you know?
• From 1632 to 1797 the bell ringers were the Tanara family: their chronicles record that an elderly woman of the family was incinerated by a lightning bolt while hanging out laundry at a window of the tower.
• From the same window a young man of the family later fell, without suffering any injury.
• The Consolata bell, from 1311, was not put back into use after the recasting of 1833.