Built between 1813 and 1830, the Torre del Popolo (besides dominating the city of Palazzolo sull’Oglio, of which it is a symbol) is the highest civic bell tower in Europe; the shape and the unusual height (92 meters) are due to the initial dissatisfaction of the architects, who continued to raise it to obtain a better aesthetic effect.

Despite some delays due to some lack of funds and, above all, the death of Don Cristoforo Chiodi (director of the project), in 1825 the dome was completed and the following year the first wooden statue of San Fedele was erected, work of the carpenter from Palazzolo Bernardino Morandi; the statue is destroyed along with the dome in the fire developed on the night of 19-20th February 1893 during the celebrations for the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII: we proceed to the reconstruction of the dome designed by the Brescia architect Luigi Arcioni, as well as the construction of a new statue of the saint inaugurated in 1896 by the Milanese sculptor Marco Antonio Ricci.

The bell cell was originally equipped with five bells; placed in 1831 and fused during the Second World War to obtain war materials, they were replaced by a new concert of twelve bells inaugurated in 1946 in the presence of the bishop of Brescia, Giacinto Thirteen.

At the base, on the stone walls of the “Mirabella” tower, there is a balustrade decorated with statues of Saints Peter, Paul, Sebastian, John the Baptist, Fermo, Rustico, Rocco and Maria Maddalena, placed on a floor adapted using some burial stones coming from the dismantling of the cemetery adjacent to the nearby church.

Photos and translations by Municipality of Palazzolo sull’Oglio.