Discover The Medieval Towers of Alba

Alba was known as the "città delle cento torri", the city of a hundred towers. They were all built in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Few remain. The best preserved are those between piazza Risorgimento and via Cavour, which is the stretch to walk if you only walk one. Among the survivors, many have been lowered to the level of the roofs or incorporated into the buildings around them — which is why the town no longer looks like its nickname.

Two are named in the record. In via Calissano stands one now lowered almost to the height of the adjacent roofs: the Torre di Casa Chiarlone, whose base rests at street level and which is adorned with a wooden door of the 18th century.

And Palazzo Marro, facing piazza San Giovanni, is counted among the hundred towers despite its imposing palatial appearance — a tower that stopped looking like one.

A tower-house is a vertical statement of standing, and Alba built them by the dozen in the 14th and 15th centuries.

What makes Alba's case instructive is the afterlife. Three fates are recorded, and all three are visible on a short walk.

Lowered. A tower cut down to the level of the surrounding roofs, like the Torre di Casa Chiarlone, keeps its plan and its masonry and loses its point. The base still rests at street level, which is how you identify one.

Incorporated. A tower absorbed into the buildings around it survives as thickened wall, odd window alignments and a seam in the brick.

Disguised by scale. Palazzo Marro is the extreme case: an imposing building that is nonetheless considered one of the hundred towers.

Around them, the fabric of a medieval trading town: via Cavour with its typically medieval layout, a Casaforte, and a merchants' loggia of three great arches now sunk below the street.

The towers went up together, in a two-century building boom across the 14th and 15th centuries, in the brick that Alba builds in.

They came down piecemeal. The record does not give a demolition campaign; it describes a condition — many lowered to roof level, many incorporated into buildings — which is what happens when towers stop being worth their height and the city keeps growing around them.

The Torre di Casa Chiarlone shows the method. The tower was reduced almost to the height of the neighbouring roofs, but the base was kept at street level and the structure continued in use — and in the 18th century somebody fitted it with a wooden door, which is the gesture of a building still being lived in rather than a ruin being preserved.

The ground moved too. The Loggia dei Mercanti's three great arches rest a little below the street, and further arcades are glimpsed in the basement — the level of medieval Alba is now partly underground.

Were there really a hundred towers? Alba was known as the "città delle cento torri". The record reports the nickname and that the towers were all built in the 14th and 15th centuries; it does not give a verified count, and neither does this page.

How many are left? Few. The record says so without a number. Many survivors were lowered to roof level or incorporated into the buildings around them.

Where should I walk? Between piazza Risorgimento and via Cavour — the record names that stretch as holding the best-preserved ones.

Can I climb one? No tower in Alba is described as open or climbable. These are streets and private buildings.

Which specific ones are named? The Torre di Casa Chiarlone in via Calissano, lowered almost to roof height, with a base at street level and an 18th-century wooden door; and Palazzo Marro on piazza San Giovanni, which is counted among the hundred towers despite looking like a palace.

What else is on the route? On via Cavour, the Casaforte Riva and the Loggia dei Mercanti with its three great arches below street level; on via Vittorio Emanuele, Casa Fontana at number 11.