At Piazza di Porta Ravegnana, two brick towers rise above the streets of central Bologna: the Torre degli Asinelli and the shorter, visibly leaning Torre Garisenda. Together they are known as the Due Torri, or Two Towers. They are not simply a paired photo stop. Their different shapes preserve a fragment of the city’s medieval history, while their present condition has made conservation part of the story visitors encounter today.
The municipality’s cultural-heritage record says Bologna once had about one hundred medieval towers; twenty-four survive. Families built such structures for defense and as conspicuous signs of status and wealth. The Asinelli and Garisenda became especially recognizable landmarks, but they should be read as remains of a much denser urban landscape rather than as two isolated curiosities.
