Guaita Tower

San Marino, San Marino

The Guaita fortress is the oldest of the three towers constructed on Monte Titano, and the most famous. It was built in the 11th century and served briefly as a prison. It is one of the three towers depicted on both the national flag and coat of arms. It was registered as one of the World Heritage Sites in 2008.

Guaita was rebuilt in the second half of the 15th century and in the 16th century has been covered with a sloping roof. It is called the Rocca Guaita and, within its solid walls, protected by double walls (the external wall with merlons and truncated towers at the corners), the population found refuge during sieges.

The upper entrance door, which can be reached by a staircase, is protected by a small wooden construction of 1481. The courtyard contains some pieces of artillery from the Second World War: two mortars, a gift from Vittorio Emanuele II, two 75mm canons fired by the Guardians of the Rocca during national festivities, a gift of Vittorio Emanuele III.

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Address

Salita Alla Rocca 61, San Marino, San Marino
See all sites in San Marino

Details

Founded: 11th century
Category: Castles and fortifications in San Marino

More Information

en.wikipedia.org
whc.unesco.org
www.sanmarinosite.com

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Palazzo Pubblico (0,3 km)
Basilica di San Marino (0,3 km)
Chiesa di San Francesco (0,2 km)
Cesta Tower (0,3 km)
Montale Tower (0,6 km)

User Reviews

Amanda McDonald (2 years ago)
I found this very cute salon at the last minute. The girls were professional, efficient, kind and the products used were name brand. I would definitely return.
Felix Iacob (2 years ago)
The Republica of San Marino is guarded by three towers, Guaita is the main. You can visit them for a tax of 6.5 EUR. The placement, the way they put the stones on the rock is impresionant. The surrounding view is magnificent you can see all that moves in the field. It's better to go in spring when the crowds are away. Enjoy!
MarcoyMelissa Gentilini (2 years ago)
Beautiful view while hiking around, but not worth staying longer than a couple hours in san marino. It has come to be a tourist trap selling odd things like weapons from the dark ages.
Anton Trukhanyonok (2 years ago)
Beautiful castle complex with breathtaking 360 degrees views. Make sure to visit when the weather is great, ideally - during the golden hours (at dawn/dusk).
Edna Karajbić (3 years ago)
Simply amazing. View is beautiful, the city itself very nice and interesting. It is reachable by car up to very top but we left car down and took cable train, it is more magical like that and round trip drive costs only 4.5 EUR. The entry to tower 1 (Guaita) itself is 4.5 but only if you really want to enter. The spectacular view is available from so many different places and unless you really want to see inside, there is no need to enter. The prices in city more than reasonable. Coffee 1.60 EUR, pizza average 8 EUR and all that from restaurant with great view up to Adriatic sea.
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Quimper Cathedral

From 1239, Raynaud, the Bishop of Quimper, decided on the building of a new chancel destined to replace that of the Romanesque era. He therefore started, in the far west, the construction of a great Gothic cathedral which would inspire cathedral reconstructions in the Ile de France and would in turn become a place of experimentation from where would later appear ideas adopted by the whole of lower Brittany. The date of 1239 marks the Bishop’s decision and does not imply an immediate start to construction. Observation of the pillar profiles, their bases, the canopies, the fitting of the ribbed vaults of the ambulatory or the alignment of the bays leads us to believe, however, that the construction was spread out over time.

The four circular pillars mark the start of the building site, but the four following adopt a lozenge-shaped layout which could indicate a change of project manager. The clumsiness of the vaulted archways of the north ambulatory, the start of the ribbed vaults at the height of the south ambulatory or the choice of the vaults descending in spoke-form from the semi-circle which allows the connection of the axis chapel to the choir – despite the manifest problems of alignment – conveys the hesitancy and diverse influences in the first phase of works which spread out until the start of the 14th century.

At the same time as this facade was built (to which were added the north and south gates) the building of the nave started in the east and would finish by 1460. The nave is made up of six bays with one at the level of the facade towers and flanked by double aisles – one wide and one narrow (split into side chapels) – in an extension of the choir arrangements.

The choir presents four right-hand bays with ambulatory and side chapels. It is extended towards the east of 3-sided chevet which opens onto a semi-circle composed of five chapels and an apsidal chapel of two bays and a flat chevet consecrated to Our Lady.

The three-level elevation with arches, triforium and galleries seems more uniform and expresses anglo-Norman influence in the thickness of the walls (Norman passageway at the gallery level) or the decorative style (heavy mouldings, decorative frieze under the triforium). This building site would have to have been overseen in one shot. Undoubtedly interrupted by the war of Succession (1341-1364) it draws to a close with the building of the lierne vaults (1410) and the fitting of stained-glass windows. Bishop Bertrand de Rosmadec and Duke Jean V, whose coat of arms would decorate these vaults, finished the chancel before starting on the building of the facade and the nave.

Isolated from its environment in the 19th century, the cathedral was – on the contrary – originally very linked to its surroundings. Its site and the orientation of the facade determined traffic flow in the town. Its positioning close to the south walls resulted in particuliarities such as the transfer of the side gates on to the north and south facades of the towers: the southern portal of Saint Catherine served the bishop’s gate and the hospital located on the left bank (the current Préfecture) and the north gate was the baptismal porch – a true parish porch with its benches and alcoves for the Apostles’ statues turned towards the town, completed by an ossuary (1514).

The west porch finds its natural place between the two towers. The entire aesthetic of these three gates springs from the Flamboyant era: trefoil, curly kale, finials, large gables which cut into the mouldings and balustrades. Pinnacles and recesses embellish the buttresses whilst an entire bestiary appears: monsters, dogs, mysterious figures, gargoyles, and with them a whole imaginary world promoting a religious and political programme. Even though most of the saints statues have disappeared an armorial survives which makes the doors of the cathedral one of the most beautiful heraldic pages imaginable: ducal ermine, the Montfort lion, Duchess Jeanne of France’s coat of arms side by side with the arms of the Cornouaille barons with their helmets and crests. One can imagine the impact of this sculpted decor with the colour and gilding which originally completed it.

At the start of the 16th century the construction of the spires was being prepared when building was interrupted, undoubtedly for financial reasons. Small conical roofs were therefore placed on top of the towers. The following centuries were essentially devoted to putting furnishings in place (funeral monuments, altars, statues, organs, pulpit). Note the fire which destroyed the spire of the transept cross in 1620 as well as the ransacking of the cathedral in 1793 when nearly all the furnishings disappeared in a « bonfire of the saints ».

The 19th century would therefore inherit an almost finished but mutilated building and would devote itself to its renovation according to the tastes and theories of the day.

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