The tower was built to be exactly the same height as
Siena Cathedral as a sign that the church and the state had equal power.[nb 1]
The name refers to its first
bellringer, Giovanni di Balduccio, nicknamed Mangiaguadagni (‘Profit eater’) either for his spendthrift tendency,[4] idleness[5] or gluttony.[6]
Sections
The tower has visually distinct levels, from the bottom:
The loggia where the tower meets the Piazza del Campo, known as the Cappella di Piazza, was added in 1352 to fulfil a vow to the
Holy Virgin by Sienese survivors of the
Black Death. The corner pilasters attained their current form in 1378, the sculptures decorating them being executed in 1378-1382 by Mariano d'Angelo Romanelli e Bartolomeo di Tommé. The simple wooden ceiling once covering the loggia was replaced by the current Renaissance marble vault in 1461-1468 by
Antonio Federighi, also responsible for the bizarre decorations of the coronation. In 1537-1539
Il Sodoma painted a
fresco above the altar, now housed in the town museum in the Palazzo Pubblico.
The upper-middle part in stone was built by Agostino di Giovanni to the design of one Mastro Lippo pittore, probably identifiable with
Lippo Memmi. It consists of a
parapet resting on
corbels. The pronounced petal-like arches between the corbels have led writers to describe the structure as a tulip[7] or lily.[8]
The clock on the lower part of the shaft was added in 1360. There are three bells, the largest one is called the "Sunto" - an abbreviation of assunto, a reference to the assumption of the Virgin. The bell plays a notable role in the celebrations of the
Palio.
The walls of the tower are approximately 3 m (9.8 ft) thick on each side.
Towers inspired by the Torre del Mangia
A number of towers have been inspired by the Torre del Mangia. These include:
The all-
granitePilgrim Monument at
Provincetown, Massachusetts is a scaled-down near replica of the Torre del Mangia, but for its materials and height. Designed by
Willard T. Sears, it was built from 1907 to 1910 to commemorate the 21 November 1620 landing of the
Mayflower Pilgrims there. The 77-metre-tall (253 ft) monument is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.
The
Dock Tower in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, UK. Built in 1852 and standing, 94 m (308 ft) tall, the vertical
reservoir provided hydraulic tower to open the lock gates of the Royal Dock. Although obsolete from 1892 onward, it remains a proud monument to the town and its rich fishing history.
The tower at the Pine Street Inn at the
South End of
Boston, Massachusetts, formerly a fire station and fire watch tower, is also modelled on the Torre del Mangia. Boston's tower, which is 48 m (157 ft) tall, designed and built in 1892 by
Edmund March Wheelwright, is made of brick like the Italian original and was originally designed as part of the central fire station and used as a fire lookout.[9][10][11][12]
The main building of the Spanish business & law school,
ICADE, in
Madrid, is topped with a clock tower modelled on the Torre de Mangia.
^ Even though the 77-m
cathedral bell tower is 10 m shorter than the Mangia tower, the cathedral site is about 10 m higher than the town hall site.[2][3]
^
abSmith, Timothy B.; Steinhoff, Judith Belle (2012).
Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 20.
ISBN978-1-4094-0066-0. ...to compensate for the possible perception of inequality between civic and ecclesiastical authorities, the torre del Mangia (the tower of the city hall) was designed to be uniquely tall among Italian town halls and to reach to the same absolute height as the bell tower of the Cathedral, which sat on the highest hill in Siena.
^Birnbaum, Stephen (1989). Birnbaum's Italy. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 6358.
ISBN978-0-395-51151-0. ...a one-time bell ringer, Giovanni di Duccio, who was evidently a man of prodigal habits and better known to the Sienese as Mangiaguadagni.
^Chandler, F. W. (Francis Ward), ed. Municipal architecture in Boston, from designs by Edmund M. Wheelwright, city architect, 1891-1895. Boston : Bates & Guild company, 1898.