Apparently this was an architectural fad in the middle ages: rich families built "skyscrapers" to show their wealth and look out for enemies. At one point, Bolo

Apparently this was an architectural fad in the middle ages: rich families built "skyscrapers" to show their wealth and look out for enemies. At one point, Bologna had more than 100 of these towers [1]. Today, the small town of San Gimignano [2] is well known for these structures which do not seem to have a name in English (in German, they are called "Geschlechtertürme" and have their own Wikipedia [3] entry). Also, I encourage everyone to visit Bologna, it's an amazing city! [1] this is a figure you will often read, but it seems to be a bit inflated - apparently it's double counting towers from different time periods [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gimignano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gimignano [3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschlechterturm https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschlechterturm