The route of towers

One of the symbols of Trento is still today the Civic Tower, built in 1100 on the remains of Porta Veronensis, the ancient gateway to the Roman Tridentum. The principal aim of this tower was to defend Piazza Duomo, but starting from the XIV Century it housed also the city prison, as the nearby Torre della Tromba, whose hall of the municipal council was decorated at the end of the XVIII Century by Antonio Giongo.

Some towers defended the city gateways that are no longer visible today, as the Torrione adjacent Piazza Fiera, on the south side of Trento. Some other towers directly overlooked the River Adige, which ran through the historic center until the mid-nineteenth Century. Some examples are Torre Verde, which was situated in the contrada San Martino, where city boatmen lived, and Torre Vanga, which was connected with the opposite side of the river by a wooden bridge, where it was located, in an isolated position, the Abbey of San Lorenzo.

At the moment the towers are not open to visitors, except Torre Vanga, which houses the temporary seat of the Alpine troupes museum. Walking along the circuit which connects all the tower takes the visitor back to the medieval “dark times”, in which every city had to be defended by solid and impenetrable walls with massive towers.