Guinigi Tower

Standing at 45 metres high, Guinigi Tower is also known as Lucca’s hanging garden, built at the end of the 14th century by the powerful Guinigi family, wealthy silk merchants. This medieval tower rises in the heart of the city as the symbol of a time when leading families competed for prestige by building ever higher. In the Middle Ages, Lucca counted more than a hundred of these towers, signs of wealth but also fortified refuges in times of conflict, and Torre Guinigi is now one of the few still preserved. Its red brick architecture is typical of the local Romanesque Gothic style, with mullioned windows that visually lighten its massive silhouette, and it was once part of a vast residential complex including the adjoining Guinigi Palace, which served as the family’s main urban residence. Yet the Guinigi family also owned a villa located less than a kilometre from the palace, which they referred to as their country house, and you can imagine the organisation of a long caravan of servants transporting furniture and luggage for what was only a ten minute journey, the epitome of medieval ostentation. But what truly makes this tower unique is its summit, a genuine hanging garden planted with seven centuries old holm oak trees set within a large earth filled structure more than 45 metres above the ground- likely as a symbol of renewal and continuity for the Guinigi dynasty. Some have even suggested that Paolo Guinigi planted these trees in order to bypass laws limiting the height of buildings, adding elevation to the tower without officially altering its structure. According to a local legend, one of these trees was planted by Paolo Guinigi himself and lost all its leaves at the moment of his capture by Francesco Sforza in 1430. To reach the top, you’ll need to climb more than 230 steps, but the effort is rewarded with a panoramic view over the city’s rooftops, the ramparts and the surrounding hills, all in the shade of this medieval garden suspended in the sky.