00:00In the Middle Ages, the Italian city of Bologna had more than 100 skyscrapers.
00:02The first towers were built almost a thousand years ago, during a period of great conflict and war in Italy.
00:06They were built for defensive and surveillance purposes.
00:09However, the towers quickly became a means for the rival noble families of the city to show their wealth and status.
00:13The higher the tower was, the more impressive the prestige of the family was.
00:16It was difficult and expensive to build such structures in medieval Italy,
00:19and a tower required a lot of manpower and up to 10 years to be built.
00:22Over the following centuries, the towers, one after the other, collapsed or were demolished.
00:26Many towers were then used in one way or another, such as prisons, city towers, shops or residential buildings.
00:31The last demolitions took place during the 20th century, according to an ambitious plan of restructuring the city.
00:36Less than 20 towers are still visible in Bologna today.
00:38Among them is the Altabella tower, 61 meters high, the Pendiparte tower, 60 meters high, and the Garisenda tower, 48 meters high.
00:45The tallest tower in Cordova is the Assinelli tower, measuring 97 meters, with 498 steps to connect the top.
00:50It was a prison, a place of scientific experience, an observation post during the last world war,
00:55and it even served as a television transmitter.
00:56However, it is considerably tilted, with an inclination of 1.3 degrees.
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