• witty_username@feddit.nl
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    24 days ago

    “The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is that the richest families used them for offensive/defensive purposes during the period of the investiture Controversy”

      • clif@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        That was actually one of the reasons I learned. The rich families wanted to show how rich they were so they built towers. Then other rich families built their own, preferably bigger, to show that they had a bigger penis more money.

        Are there any facts to back that up? I don’t know. I heard it ~25 years ago and I don’t remember the source. Though, I was in Bologna around that time so possibly from a tour or possibly from some drunk guy at a party.

          • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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            23 days ago

            Or horse. I wonder what the 12th century equivalent of a modified tailpipe was?

              • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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                23 days ago

                Those are words I’ve never seen, thanks. I guess I can see that, imagine some smelly poor showing up on a nag in a burlap caparison then some medieval influencer on a Percheron with a purple silk caparison pulls up alongside? All the fair maidens faint right there!

        • Eq0@literature.cafe
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          19 days ago

          Take also meant more unstable, so there was a component of an engineering challenge.

      • teft@piefed.social
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        24 days ago

        It’s not about height, it’s about girth. You need a properly wide base and taper in order to please house so many soldiers.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        23 days ago

        Yeah, somebody of influence built one, and the rest of the city that could afford to just followed.

        The TikTok Stanley Cup craze of the 1100s.