Torre del Grillo
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Description
Due to the lack of documentation of the tower during the Middle Ages, much of its history is less clear than some of the more famous towers in the area. Some sources attribute its construction to Gilidone Carbone, a member of the Colonna family who is also credited with building the Torre di Colonna, but recent studies have called that into question. The first document to reference the tower using its current name was a 1675 peace agreement (strumento di concordia) between Girolama Ottaviani Orsini and the marchese Cosmo Del Grillo.
According to documents written soon after the acquisition of the tower by the Del Grillo family, the tower originally belonged to the Colonna family, then changed hands to the Conti. However, it was built using the same masonry techniques as both the Torre dei Conti and the Torre di Milizie, and was likely used by the Conti to reduce the distance that forms of communication like fire and smoke would need to travel in order to send messages between the two major Conti family towers.
The Conti family kept control of the tower until the second half of the 17th century, when the Del Grillo family acquired the tower from Baldassarre of the Conti and connected it to their noble palace. The stucco decoration, which can be found at the top of the tower, reads "Ex Marchione de Grillis," which was the first inscription on the tower.
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Description
Due to the lack of documentation of the tower during the Middle Ages, much of its history is less clear than some of the more famous towers in the area. Some sources attribute its construction to Gilidone Carbone, a member of the Colonna family who is also credited with building the Torre di Colonna, but recent studies have called that into question. The first document to reference the tower using its current name was a 1675 peace agreement (strumento di concordia) between Girolama Ottaviani Orsini and the marchese Cosmo Del Grillo.
According to documents written soon after the acquisition of the tower by the Del Grillo family, the tower originally belonged to the Colonna family, then changed hands to the Conti. However, it was built using the same masonry techniques as both the Torre dei Conti and the Torre di Milizie, and was likely used by the Conti to reduce the distance that forms of communication like fire and smoke would need to travel in order to send messages between the two major Conti family towers.
The Conti family kept control of the tower until the second half of the 17th century, when the Del Grillo family acquired the tower from Baldassarre of the Conti and connected it to their noble palace. The stucco decoration, which can be found at the top of the tower, reads "Ex Marchione de Grillis," which was the first inscription on the tower.