Bell Tower Restores Historic Clock and Urban Renewal Progress

The clock of the Torre Apponale still strikes the hours on the old Renga, the city’s bell, marking the minutes on two dials restored to their original appearance: Roman numerals on the outside from 1 to 12 and Arabic numerals inside from 13 to 24.

The entire setup is surrounded by copper trims and iron frames. The disappearance of the swatch, as the three-centimeter-thick tempered crystal blue dial was dubbed, was marked in the square with a ceremony, during which Deputy Mayor Matteotti pointed out that the promise of the clock returning by Christmas had also been fulfilled.

Another step forward in the urban renewal project of the historic center, which will continue next year with the installation of lanterns modeled after the oldest existing in the city, along with the urban furniture of Piazza San Rocco recently designed by Winkler and Campetti.

Future Projects and Improvements Ahead

By 2001, the tower will be accessible to visitors, and once a week entry will be free (as with the Rocca Tower, from which an enhancement of the museum offerings is expected).

The satisfaction of completing a journey that has surprisingly taken three years is now tinged with some reservations.

In the old Roman numeral quadrant, the four numerals were made with parallel staves, IIII, instead of the current IV. Not only that: the white dial, while making the numbers more visible on one side, condemns the interior room of the tower—the space housing the electronic mechanism that controls the clock—to complete darkness.

A shame: in fact, two.