Torre dei Conti: A Family Fortress
Title
Description
The Torre dei Conti dominates the landscape, just as it once did during the Middle Ages. The tower is named after one of the most powerful families of medieval Rome, the Conti. Notably, this tower stood in the middle of a violent conflict between the Conti family and another powerful family of Rome, the Orsini, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. This conflict was deeply rooted in economic and historical rivalry, which eventually led to a violent attack on the tower as the Orsini tried to turn the city against the Conti. The tower, however, was only one part of a complex the Conti created to protect them. Following a common trend in medieval architecture, this compound-tower apparatus once stood as the grand symbol of the Conti family.
Pope Innocent III, a member of the Conti, built the tower as a way to commemorate the family. However, the construction of the tower involved controversy. Scholars have said that Innocent III took money illicitly from the church and gave it to his brother to build the tower. This controversy has led some to believe that the Ospedale di Santo Spirito was built as a way for Innocent to atone for his sin.
After an earthquake in the mid-fourteenth century, part of the tower was destroyed. Over time, the tower has undergone more weathering and destruction. However, the remaining base still stands tall among the modern city of Rome. With its own road (Via Torre dei Conti), the legacy of this tower certainly remains prominent across the city’s history.
Abstract
Creator
Source
Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks, trans. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Identifier
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Description
The Torre dei Conti dominates the landscape, just as it once did during the Middle Ages. The tower is named after one of the most powerful families of medieval Rome, the Conti. Notably, this tower stood in the middle of a violent conflict between the Conti family and another powerful family of Rome, the Orsini, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. This conflict was deeply rooted in economic and historical rivalry, which eventually led to a violent attack on the tower as the Orsini tried to turn the city against the Conti. The tower, however, was only one part of a complex the Conti created to protect them. Following a common trend in medieval architecture, this compound-tower apparatus once stood as the grand symbol of the Conti family.
Pope Innocent III, a member of the Conti, built the tower as a way to commemorate the family. However, the construction of the tower involved controversy. Scholars have said that Innocent III took money illicitly from the church and gave it to his brother to build the tower. This controversy has led some to believe that the Ospedale di Santo Spirito was built as a way for Innocent to atone for his sin.
After an earthquake in the mid-fourteenth century, part of the tower was destroyed. Over time, the tower has undergone more weathering and destruction. However, the remaining base still stands tall among the modern city of Rome. With its own road (Via Torre dei Conti), the legacy of this tower certainly remains prominent across the city’s history.
Creator
Madison McBride (2016), edited by Sam Jackson (2027)Coverage
1200sSource
Brentano, Robert. Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth Century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks, trans. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.