Bargello

Fortress / former prison in Florence, Italy. Part of Florence.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Lost Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars	exurbe	subject	The Bargello tower was built by a private family, sold to the city when the tower-height ban passed, and incorporated into the city prison fort.

The Lost Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars — exurbe (2025)

Source: Original · Readwise highlight

The tower on the right here is part of Bargello, the prison & police fortress, but it didn’t start that way.

• Role: subject
• In the article: The Bargello tower was built by a private family, sold to the city when the tower-height ban passed, and incorporated into the city prison fort. Its brick battlements are a later addition marking the shift from private to public fortress.
• Why it matters: It is the worked example of what happened to a private tower under Florence’s ban, and it is the one tower allowed to stay tall.