Walking around Bientina we still find traces of the ancient medieval walls, enclosed by angular, imposing towers and surrounded by a large moat.
walls and towers
These towers still bear their original names. The one we find in the western part of the town – on the corner of today’s Piazza Vittorio Emanuele – is the Paracintolo Tower. From here the walls continued south-east and were bordered by the Torre la Mora and then by the Torre del Giglio (Via Alighieri-Via XX Settembre). The walls then continued at a right angle until they reached the Torre Grande or Mastio della Rocca (Piazzetta dell’Angiolo). It is assumed that there were other intermediate towers, eight in total.
The Keep
At the 14th-century structure of the Mastio, with a pentagonal base, there is still a low arch that was the ancient gate of Bientina. Until the mid-19th century, it housed a clock without a dial that struck the hours in the French manner, distinguishing the sound between the antimeridian and postmeridian hours. The Mastio has three floors and an outdoor terrace. The first floor houses the Library with over 3,000 volumes and the Municipality’s Historical Archive, which collects documents from 1402 to 1866, including those of Bientina’s most important families.
(Top: detail of the La Mora Tower)