Hotels in Rome: Matilde di Canossa,IsolaÂ Tiberina ,Tower of the Maid,Torre dei Pierleoni

Mediaval - Rome

On the Isola Tiberina today it is still possible to admire what remains of the Castle of the Caetani, built against the Torre dei Pierleoni dating from the 10th century. In 1087 Matilde di Canossa and Pope Victor III hid in the tower to escape the dangers of the army of the antipope Clement II and, in 1089, Pope Urban II resided there. The Caetani became the owners of the fortress in around 1294, the year Benedetto Caetani was elected pope with the name Boniface VIII. The tower, which today is still at the head of the Ponte Fabricio, is also known as the Torre della Pulzella (Tower of the Maid),
referring to the small marble head of a young woman set into the brick facing.

The towers were residences and fortresses of the aristocratic families, and symbols of their power. Down through the years, many of the tower-houses suffered damage from earthquakes or were torn down as ordered by Senator Brancaleone degli Andalò in 1252. With the Renaissance, the residential palace style took hold, and the towers were incorporated into the new buildings or else totally demolished. Inside the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, before the steps of the presbytery, is one of the most important medieval pieces of the church: a marble puteal or well curb created from a Roman column fragment.

It is one of the very few pieces of Ottonian art found in Rome, In fact, it dates from the 10th century, from the time of Otto III, who probably commissioned it- To the left of the church façade rises the Romanesque bell tower, built in the 12th century. From the Isola Tiberina it is possible to reach the Piazza in Piscinula with the Casa Mattei, an elegant complex of 14th-century dwellings built for the noble Roman family and restored,
during the Fascist period, by Lorenzo Corrado Cesanelli.

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