A medieval tower on the former bank of the Adige in Trento, built as the north-eastern bastion of the city walls and named for its green conical roof.
At a glance
Torre Verde stands at the junction of Via Torre Verde and Via Alessandro Manzoni in Trento, where the Adige once flowed until the river was diverted in 1858. The tower is a semicircular stone structure with a green glazed tile roof, visible only from the outside because the building to which it is attached is used as a private residence and for commercial services.
Key facts
- Where: Via Alessandro Manzoni 5, Trento
- What: Tower
- When: First traces documented in 1197; the green conical upper part is mentioned in a proclamation of 14 May 1506
- GPS: 46.0724, 11.1249 · Open in Google Maps
History
The first traces of Torre Verde date to 1197. The tower guarded the now-vanished Porta San Martino and formed the bastion that closed the city wall on the banks of the Adige before the river was diverted in 1858. Boats loaded with goods had to pay a toll imposed by the Prince-Bishop at this point. The tower is mentioned in a proclamation in Trento’s consular archive dated 14 May 1506, when the upper part with the green cone should have been built. Its construction is attributed to Prince-Bishop Georg Hack von Themeswald, whose family coat of arms was found inside. A written source from the first half of the seventeenth century records that the tower was also used as a gunpowder magazine. Albrecht Dürer included the tower in his paintings of Trento between 1490 and 1494. After the walls linking the tower to the nearby Buonconsiglio Castle were demolished, it was left isolated from its original context.
What you see
The photographs show a semicircular tower of rough stone with a pointed low doorway and a small wooden balcony, topped by a conical roof covered in glossy green tiles. The information panel mounted on the stonework carries a text in Italian and German installed by the Comune di Trento under the heading “Itinerari storico-artistici”. The panel explains that the tower takes its name from the colour of its cusp covering, that it defended the vanished Porta San Martino, and that it stood on the banks of the Adige before the river was diverted in 1858. In one view an orange building stands to the left of the tower, and in the street view a metal fence and fallen leaves frame the base.
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Nearby
- The Piedicastello Galleries – Trentino Historical Museum Foundation — a short walk across the former Adige riverbed
- Museum in the Buonconsiglio Castle — the castle once linked to the tower by defensive walls
Gallery
Sources
- Comune di Trento, Torre Verde / Luoghi / Vivere il Comune / Homepage – Comune di Trento: the tower’s name, position at the Porta San Martino, the 1858 river diversion, the Prince-Bishop’s toll, and the current access restrictions
- Trentino Cultura, Torre Verde – Trentino Cultura: the tower as north-eastern bastion of the city walls, its position on the Adige until 1858, and its role as sentinel and port warehouse
- Il Giornale Trentino, Torre Verde a Trento, un gioiello finora dimenticato – Trento – Trentino: the first traces in 1197, the 14 May 1506 proclamation, the attribution to Georg Hack von Themeswald, the seventeenth-century gunpowder magazine use, and Dürer’s paintings between 1490 and 1494
- Ciceru, Torre Verde: Trento’s Historic Green Tower – Trento, Italy | Ciceru – Travel Stories & Adventure Guides: the connection to Buonconsiglio Castle by a fortified wall and the restoration under Georg Hack von Themeswald between 1446 and 1465
- Stefano Vigolo, photographs and notes to the editorial staff (2026): identification of the subject and the GPS coordinates. Not a published source
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