San Gimignano
Towers of Tuscany
Portrait
Wealthy families raised towers against each other as displays of standing, and at the peak seventy-two stood in a town of a few thousand; fourteen survive, and a law once forbade any tower to exceed the town hall's. Plague and the collapse of the pilgrim road ended the town's growth in 1348, which is why so much medieval fabric remains.
Nearby in the atlas
Siena — The Shell-Shaped SquareFlorence — Humanist BeautyMontecatini Terme — Tuscan WatersMontalcino — The Brunello Hill
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