Castagna

During the early years of the Republic, this tower housed the podestà, the non-Florentine leader of the city chosen for a specific term. Originally, the tower was called Bocca di Ferro (Ironmouth), presumably in memory of a Bolognese podestà of the Ferro family. Later it took the name Torre della Castagna (Chestnut Tower) and then Torre di Dante (Dante’s Tower) because it stands above the area where our poet’s house once stood in Via S. Martino, and where there was once an old door on which someone had scrawled an inscription announcing the place of Dante’s birth.

In 1261, the podestà left the Torre della Castagna in favor of the Bargello, which then became the seat of the civic government.

In 1282, upon the creation of a new branch of government called the Priorate of the Guilds, the priors took up residence here. On the plaque above: “This tower, known as the Chestnut Tower, is all that is left of the seat of government where the Priors of the Guilds presided over Florence before the strength and the glory of the burgeoning commune led to the construction of the Palazzo della Signoria.”

Above: “And they were called the Priors of the Guilds and they lived inside the Tower of the Chestnut near the Badia so that they did not have to fear the threats of the magnates.”

This brief passage from the historian Dino Compagni (ca. 1255-1324) attests to the change in governmental structure following the grave violence between Guelphs and Ghibellines that came to a head in 1267 and the failure of Cardinal Latino to rule in 1282. At that time, the tower housed the twelve Priors of the Guilds.

“When they were elected in place of the Buonomini, there were three priors: one from the guild of the merchants (Calimala), one from that of wool (Lana) and the last from the bankers (Cambio); each served a term of two months. Two months later, the number of priors rose to six, that is, one from each neighborhood, and after that to twelve, one for each of the major guilds. [...] Originally, the priors were housed in the Tower of the Chestnut behind the Badia, and with them six servants and six guards.” (L’Illustratore Fiorentino, 1880)