I was born in Modena, and for a true Modenese the Ghirlandina is the nicest belltower of the world.
photo downloaded from www.laguidadimodena.it
The origin of the strange name given to this tower is quite uncertain: for many it would be due to the two marble balustrades, or garlands, that decorate the octagonal spire of the bell tower. For others instead the Jewish refugees from Spain would have started to call it Ghirlandina, because it reminded them of the Giralda tower in Seville.
As our Duomo and the Palazzo Comunale, also the Ghirlandina is included in the Unesco Heritage since 1997. It is a really beautiful building, where you can clearly distinguish two different building phases: the lower five floors are Romanesque, coeval to the Duomo, and were completed around 1179. The arches of the sixth floor mimic the previous ones, but they where completed in 1261. The Modenesi had in fact asked Arrigo da Campione to adjust their bell tower to the then very diffused Gothic taste. Therefore the superior parts of the Ghirlandina where built on project of this great architect with the octagonal tambour crowned by a spire finished in 1319.
However, since the beginning, the subsidence of the ground made the tower tilt towards the Cathedral, for this reason Arrigo da Campione projected the spire in a way to correct the inclination. After a new subsidence, probably in 1338, it was necessary to build the two supporting arches placed between the Ghirlandina and the Duomo.
The external decorations are extremely interesting: there are string-courses with blind bows, and on the edges we can see several animal figures, derived from the medieval bestiaries, while on the higher edges there are various human figures, among them there is a girl with a flower.
In 1588, during a sumptuous ceremony, using simply a ladder, they brought on top of the tower the cross that we can still see today. It was welded to a golden sphere containing a urn with some relics of San Geminiano.
The interior is fascinating, and it’s been recently re-opened, after the forced closure due to the earthquake of 2012.
A narrow staircase leads us to a room decorated with frescos of the 15th century: the room of the Secchia Rapita (Kidnapped Bucket), credit and pride of the Modenese. In the past this room was probably used as an archive as well as a storage room for the treasure of the Town of Modena.
The bucket now kept in the Ghirlandina is a copy. You can find the original one in the Palazzo Comunale, the City Hall.
This simple object is a trophy: it was stolen by some Modenese students during the Battle of Zappolino on November 15th 1325. The ghibelin Modena had won against the guelf Bologna. The Bolognesi tried several times to rescue it, but the Modenesi never gave up.
The battle between the two towns was extremely important for the control of the lands around di Bazzano and Savignano, and was preceded by several raids and incursions in the territories of Modena by the Bolognese.
In the 17th century the Modenese poet Alessandro Tassoni wrote a heroic-comic poem about the Kidnapped Bucket, thus ridiculing an event that de facto, had been extremely bloody.
Tassoni’s monument is now located in the small square at the feet of the tower, Piazza della Torre.
Few more steps up you can reach the staircase that in about two hundred steps, going up along the perimeter walls, leads you to the Stanza dei Torresani, the Torresanis’ room. These figures, that were present in Modena since the 14th century, were guardians; they had the task of guarding the city, watching over its safety and controlling the opening and closing of the city gates.
In this room there are two decorated capitals: one with with King David playing the harpsichord, and one with two judges, an honest one and a corrupted one. Furthermore there is a fresco, probably dating back to the 16th century, but it was re-painted in the 19th, that represents Modena’s coat of arms surmounted by the Estes’ eagle.
Higher again you can get to the belfry. The presence of the bells in the Ghirlandina is documented since the early 13th century. As the sixth floor was finished the belfry was moved here. Among the torresani’s assignments there was also that of playing the bells to spell the hours, to signal dangerous situations or to signal special festivities or tournaments.
The concert is currently composed of five bells:
Il Campanone (2085 kg) C natural, 1636
The S. Omobono bell (1575 kg) C sharp, 1636, remelting of a bell dating back to 1306
The small bell (47 kg) G sharp, 1660
The fourth (739,7 kg) F natural, and the fifth bell (424,2 kg) A flat, are of 1989
In 1989 the bell dating back to 1350 (520 kg) G natural, was removed from the belfry, it is now exposed in the tower.