The Torre dei Gualtieri, the keep of the old stronghold, known in dialect as «lu Turriò» or «lu Campanò», rises on piazza Giuseppe Sacconi in the heart of the Paese Alto of San Benedetto del Tronto, near the abbey church of San Benedetto Martire and the archaeological area of the seaside Roman villa. It is the town's monumental symbol and today hosts exhibitions and cultural events. In 1146 Bishop Liberto of Fermo granted the Gualtieri brothers the right to build a tower to defend the Castrum Sancti Benedicti, and its custody was given to the noblemen Berardo and Azzo, sons of Gualtiero.
What to see
The castellan lived in the tower and sent orders and signals to the other fortifications of the March of Fermo, above all to the stronghold of Acquaviva Picena; there were also underground tunnels for sorties. It is about 20 metres high, built of brick, with an elongated hexagonal plan «with a double point», designed to be stronger and to remove blind spots for the defenders: the sides are five metres long and the walls a metre and a half thick. At the top it has a projecting gallery on corbels and machicolations and Ghibelline merlons, rebuilt in the 1901 restoration designed by Giuseppe Sacconi; a second restoration, completed in December 2001, made it visitable again and lit it at night.
Inside you climb through several levels: on the ground floor, whose entrance was opened between 1767 and 1790, a trapdoor leads to the underground room; the first floor has the old postern, the original entrance about six metres up, once reached by a retractable wooden ladder; the second floor holds the pendulum mechanism of the clock. The crenellated terrace has two bronze bells: the larger weighs more than two thousand kilos, was recast in July 1852 at the town's expense with help from the seafaring community, and bears figures of the Annunciation, Saint Vincent Ferrer and the Crucifixion.
Visiting
The tower is part of the municipality's public opening programme: days and times should be checked beforehand.
Our editors' tip
From the terrace the view reaches north to Grottammare, south to Martinsicuro and the mouth of the Tronto, west towards Acquaviva Picena and east over the Adriatic.
