Troyan Tower

In Piazza Medici stands the Troyana Tower, also known as the Clock Tower, with a square plan, 44 meters high; by climbing the 199 steps of the wooden staircase present throughout it is possible to reach the top and enjoy a wonderful view of the entire city.

The tower, belonging to the palace of the Troya family, was built in the 13th century in a key hub for the medieval city. The position, strategically very significant, underlines the prominent role that the family occupied in the social fabric of the city; information on the Troya is scarce, but it allows us to follow the rise and subsequent decline of this influential family. The house could boast a flourishing money lending business in various areas of Europe (Germany, France, Belgium) and the construction of a palace and a high tower is part of the policy aimed at showing the wealth accumulated by the members of this family; a prestige also demonstrated by the city chronicles which recall the ban, broken by the Troya, to build towers higher than the one owned by the Bertramenghi Scarampi families (about 36 meters high). Related to this first construction phase are the single-lancet windows that open in the lower part of the building, very different architecturally from the double-lancet windows that adorn the highest part of the tower and dating back to subsequent interventions, dictated not only by aesthetic needs. In fact, in the early years of the 14th century, the Troya were involved, like almost all the Asti families, in the ferocious struggle that saw two opposing factions clash, that of the De Castello and that of the Solaro, allies of the Troya. The latter were driven out of the city and deprived of all properties within the city walls; after an exile that lasted just over a year, the family regained possession of the palace and began some renovation works on the building. In addition to a drastic planimetric modification of the building, the twelve mullioned windows with rounded arches distributed over three floors and the terminal band made up of three orders of arches made of alternating terracotta and sandstone, typical of the Asti area, also date back to this phase. the tower and the palace, owned by the Troya until the extinction of the family during the fifteenth century, passed in 1560 to Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Savoy, who assigned the tower to the public function of striking the hours. The bell on the summit, completely restored and relocated to its original position, dates back to 1531 and is one of the oldest in all of Piedmont.