The Tower of the Militia (Torre delle Milizie in Italian) is, perhaps, one of the best testimonies of the Middle Ages in Rome. Being a local tour guide trust me when I tell you that this period for the Eternal City was not so dark, especially because many artistic or architectonic wonders came from it. A local tour guide like me must show you why Rome is the Eternal City, because are surviving still today active witnesses of its even troubled past.

Often mistreated, the Middle Ages was an intense time for the locals, who, unfortunately for them, were often in the midst of wars without quarter. The noble families, of roman origins and not, used to fight each, even with weapons, to take power in the city. Moreover these clans used to influence the clergy in order to bring its members to the ecclesiastical and civil roles and positiions, but also directly  pointing to elect one of their members as a cardinal or, better yet, the pope! We are in the Rome of the XIII century when it was not hard to see murdered popes or escaping ones, some unofficial Popes elected by a part of the clergy, and the clashes spread throughout the city. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church was ruled by the noble families that dwelt in Rome, especially when, for various political reasons, and not only that, sometimes the support of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire was less.

Probably the best visual example of the difficulty of the moment is represented by the hundreds of fortified guard towers that stand out in the sky of Rome during the Middle Ages. There were more than 300 of them (if you would like to know more about another medievale tower, that was also owned by an an unofficial pope, click here)! Perhaps the best way to understand the importance, in the panorama of the medieval city, of some fortified towers is represented by the words bequeathed to us by an english scholar, Master Gregory (lived in the XII century), which says, “You have to admire with extraordinary enthusiasm the panorama of the city, where there are so many towers to look like ears of wheat”. After all, it was the custom to strengthen the defences of the palaces or houses of nobles, who lived in the constant fear of night raids or daylight to their property.

The Tower of the Militia was strongly supported by pope Gregory IX of the Counts of Segni family, using an ancient bastion of the Servian Walls, the first defensive city walls of Rome (I am speaking about the VI century b.C.). As historical praxis, the tower passed from hand to hand according to varying fortune of the families that owned them. Also Boniface VIII, the Caetani pope (that one of the first Jubilee), took possession of the tower, which suffered a tremendous blow on the 10th of September 1348. A violent earthquake struck the whole city, bringing death and destruction everywhere. Among its effects, the most visible one is the fact that the tower, today, is...pending! Let us case, since, due to the earthquake the top of the tower collapsed, changing violently the foundations also the same, bringing the tower to lean significantly to one side! And the term militia? What is its origin? Perhaps from the fact that, even since roman times, this was a military fortification. Also, not to miss anything, in 1910 were carried out excavations in the area, contributed to render even more unstable the ground underneath it, risking to collapse definitively that this testimony to the historical and architectural point of view. A tower which recalls a period which was certainly not easy and that, among other things, becomes the protagonist of a popular legend (which is and will remain as such): it is said, indeed, that from the top of this fortification Nero remarked, well pleased, the Eternal City burning due to the devastating fire of 64 d.C.