What is a campanile in architecture?

A campanile is a bell tower, often associated with Italian architecture, that is usually located next to or attached to a church. The earliest campaniles were simple, round towers with small, round-arched openings near the top, dating from the 6th to the 10th century. From the 10th century onward, square ground plans became more common, adorned with vertical strips and arcaded cornices dividing the tower into stages. In Lombardy, the design evolved with more complex elements, including a crown-like top story and a pyramidal spire. Venetian campaniles featured tall, slim, tapered shafts leading to open belfries, often made of stone, with spires above the belfry cornice. While campaniles became less common during the Renaissance, they saw a revival in the 19th century and are used for churches and other buildings.

How are campaniles different from regular church towers?

A campanile is a bell tower, usually separate from the main church structure, a distinction from regular church towers that are typically attached. Early campaniles, from the 6th to 10th centuries, featured plain, round designs with small, arched openings near the top. Later, a square plan became common, adorned with vertical strips and arcaded cornices dividing the tower into stages. In Venice, campaniles evolved into tall, slim, often tapered shafts with open belfries and spires. The resurgence of the Italian Romanesque style in the 19th century saw Lombardic churches with campaniles as an alternative to Neo-Gothic designs.

What are some famous examples of campaniles?

A campanile is a bell tower, often associated with Italian architecture, that is usually located next to a church. Some well-known campaniles include:

What materials and designs are common in campanile construction?

Campaniles, or bell towers, are often built beside or attached to a church, most commonly in Italian architecture. The earliest versions were plain, round towers featuring small, round-arched openings near the top. Later campaniles from the 10th century onward used a square ground plan, decorated with projecting vertical strips and arcaded cornices that divided the tower into stages. In Venice, campaniles had tall, slim, square shafts that tapered to open belfries, often made of stone, while the rest of the tower was brick. The spire rose above the belfry cornice. Twentieth-century materials further encouraged freestanding forms in both churches and non-residential buildings.

How has the purpose of campaniles changed over time?

Originally, campaniles served as bell towers for churches, a function that has evolved over time. The earliest examples, dating from the 6th to the 10th centuries, were simple, round towers. From the 10th century, square designs became common, particularly in Rome and Lombardy. Over time, the design of campaniles, especially in Venice, emphasized verticality, with tall, slim towers rising to open belfries. During the Renaissance, campaniles became less common but experienced a revival in the 19th century, extending beyond religious structures to factories, markets, and other buildings. In these instances, they functioned as clock towers or simply for picturesque effect. The use of modern building materials in the 20th century further solidified the campanile as a common tower type for various buildings.

Campanile

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Campanile, Sant' Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, Italy, 6th century.

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Campanile

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Top Questions

What is a campanile in architecture?
A campanile is a bell tower, often associated with Italian architecture, that is usually located next to or attached to a church. The earliest campaniles were simple, round towers with small, round-arched openings near the top, dating from the 6th to the 10th century.

From the 10th century onward, square ground plans became more common, adorned with vertical strips and arcaded cornices dividing the tower into stages. In Lombardy, the design evolved with more complex elements, including a crown-like top story and a pyramidal spire. Venetian campaniles featured tall, slim, tapered shafts leading to open belfries, often made of stone, with spires above the belfry cornice. While campaniles became less common during the Renaissance, they saw a revival in the 19th century and are used for churches and other buildings.
2 Britannica Sources
1. campanile
2. Definition of campanile
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Where are campaniles usually found?
Campaniles, or bell towers, are commonly found beside or attached to a church, especially in Italian architecture. The earliest examples were plain, round towers, but from the 10th century onward, most campaniles were based on a square ground plan.

In the region of Venice, the possibilities of vertical development were fully realized. Venetian campaniles consisted of tall, slim, square-plan shafts rising to open belfries at the top.

In the 19th century, the revived campanile form appeared in connection with factories, country houses, blocks of apartment buildings, markets, and collegiate buildings. In the 20th century, the campanile became a common type of tower for churches and other nonresidential buildings.
2 Britannica Sources
1. campanile
2. Definition of campanile
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How are campaniles different from regular church towers?
A campanile is a bell tower, usually separate from the main church structure, a distinction from regular church towers that are typically attached. Early campaniles, from the 6th to 10th centuries, featured plain, round designs with small, arched openings near the top. Later, a square plan became common, adorned with vertical strips and arcaded cornices dividing the tower into stages. In Venice, campaniles evolved into tall, slim, often tapered shafts with open belfries and spires. The resurgence of the Italian Romanesque style in the 19th century saw Lombardic churches with campaniles as an alternative to Neo-Gothic designs.
1 Britannica Source
1. campanile
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are some famous examples of campaniles?
A campanile is a bell tower, often associated with Italian architecture, that is usually located next to a church.

Some well-known campaniles include:
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa, which started construction in 1173, is known for its unintended tilt caused by the settling of its foundations.
- The Campanile in St. Mark’s Square in Venice is a 324-foot (99-metre) structure that dominates the townscape. The original collapsed in 1902 but was rebuilt by 1912.
- The campanile of Florence, designed by Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, and others, features a belfry stage that is approximately twice the height of any other stage.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What materials and designs are common in campanile construction?
Campaniles, or bell towers, are often built beside or attached to a church, most commonly in Italian architecture. The earliest versions were plain, round towers featuring small, round-arched openings near the top. Later campaniles from the 10th century onward used a square ground plan, decorated with projecting vertical strips and arcaded cornices that divided the tower into stages.

In Venice, campaniles had tall, slim, square shafts that tapered to open belfries, often made of stone, while the rest of the tower was brick. The spire rose above the belfry cornice. Twentieth-century materials further encouraged freestanding forms in both churches and non-residential buildings.
1 Britannica Source
1. campanile
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How has the purpose of campaniles changed over time?
Originally, campaniles served as bell towers for churches, a function that has evolved over time. The earliest examples, dating from the 6th to the 10th centuries, were simple, round towers.

From the 10th century, square designs became common, particularly in Rome and Lombardy. Over time, the design of campaniles, especially in Venice, emphasized verticality, with tall, slim towers rising to open belfries.

During the Renaissance, campaniles became less common but experienced a revival in the 19th century, extending beyond religious structures to factories, markets, and other buildings. In these instances, they functioned as clock towers or simply for picturesque effect. The use of modern building materials in the 20th century further solidified the campanile as a common tower type for various buildings.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Campanile, bell tower, usually built beside or attached to a church; the word is most often used in connection with Italian architecture. The earliest campaniles, variously dated from the 6th to the 10th century, were plain round towers with a few small, round-arched openings grouped near the top. Typical examples of this type stand beside the churches of Sant’Apollinare in Classe (c. 532–49) and Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (c. 490). Round campaniles appeared occasionally in later periods; the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (begun in 1173), sheathed in a series of superimposed arcades, is a more elaborate version of this type.

From the 10th century onward, most campaniles were based on a square ground plan, which seems to have been developed simultaneously in Rome and Lombardy. This type was generally decorated with projecting vertical strips, known as lesenes, and with ranges of arcaded cornices that divided the tower into several stages. The roof, particularly in early examples, was usually a pyramid of low pitch, invisible from the ground. This type of campanile prevailed, with minor variations, throughout the Middle Ages, as seen at Santa Prassede (1080) and Santa Maria in Trastevere (c. 1140).

Campaniles in Lombardy resembled the square Roman type, but their elements were usually more complex and elaborate. The top story was developed into a kind of crown to the whole composition, and a pyramidal or (occasionally) conical spire was added. This increasing emphasis on verticality can be seen in the early 14th-century campanile of Florence, designed by Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, and others, in which the belfry stage is enlarged to approximately twice the height of any other stage.

It was mainly around Venice that the possibilities of this vertical development were fully realized. Venetian campaniles consisted of tall, slim, square-plan shafts, frequently tapered, rising to open belfries at the top. The belfry, which had one or two rows of arcading, was often made of stone, although the rest of the tower was brick. Above the belfry cornice rose the spire, sometimes square, as in the famous 324-foot (99-metre) campanile in St. Mark’s Square in Venice (lower portion 10th and 12th centuries, belfry story 1510, the whole rebuilt after its collapse in 1902).

Campaniles of this mature type continued to be built in the region of Venice long into the Renaissance period; but elsewhere in Italy, as the Renaissance preference for other forms (particularly domes) developed, they became obsolete and remained so until the early 19th century. Then, an Italian Romanesque revival made Lombardic-style churches with their characteristic campaniles an alternative to the eclectic Neo-Gothic churches in northern Europe (an English example is Christ Church, Streatham, begun 1840). Later in the century, under the influence of the critic John Ruskin, the Venetian form of campanile became popular; it may be said to have inspired the tower at Westminster Cathedral (by J.F. Bentley, 1897). In accordance with 19th-century eclecticism, however, the revived campanile form was not limited to its original uses: it also appeared in connection with factories, country houses, blocks of apartment buildings, markets, and collegiate buildings—sometimes as a bell tower, sometimes as a clock tower, and often with no function other than picturesque effect.

Twentieth-century building materials greatly encouraged the construction of freestanding forms, and the campanile once again became a common type of tower for churches and other nonresidential buildings throughout the century.

Campanile

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