The forgotten medieval CITY OF CASTLES

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Behold the forgotten medieval city of castles, the medieval Manhattan, the great Bologna!
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[@josiwinter6836]

Hey Shad! read your book and loved it! i need more ASAP!

[@darthsidius9631]

Shad, need to review runescape weapons and Armour

[@nothim7321]

Would love to read the sequel.

[@Niskirin]

I believe the proper way to state that is "Shad you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"

[@justincarlozmaxino1100]

When is the next book coming does anyone know? Please tell me I need it.

[@tsamoka6496]

@Shadiversity Hey Shad! You should try asking Metatron if he has any information to add to this topic. This is really cool! So many ideas for stories and RPGs... =^x^=

[@BlackHei711]

1000 years from now, Archeologists will dig up the ruins of the Shadlands and believe it was used as a safe haven for the Australian Monarchy.

[@aronnemcsik]

please tell the time travelers to not to correct them... Best Long con ever...

[@TechnoMinarchistBall]

@@aronnemcsik Better yet, let's make it true.

[@roax206]

Well Australia is technically its own monarchy (not part of the UK). Though the Queen of Britain is also separately the Queen of Australia and probably technically an empress or higher as she rules over multiple kingdoms if not multiple empires.

[@Emppu_T.]

Clearly this was the land of a successful youtuber.

[@davynhainstock7503]

Or safe from the emus...

[@franksnyder9262]

Shad: *learns about castle city* Shad: “pack your things we’re leaving”

[@FirstLast-wk3kc]

That sounds like it

[@AvenjaNinja]

Why does he need to? He has the shadlands. It'll be a city of castles eventually

[@AsbestosMuffins]

"I'll build my own castle city, with blackjack and kangaroos!"

[@cedric-leonarddubois9624]

@@AsbestosMuffins and mortally dangerous snakes

[@joshh1693]

@@AsbestosMuffins I can't stop laughing at this

[@aristotlespupil136]

Imagine trying to conquer a city like that... even after breaching the wall there are plenty of strongholds firing at you from different angles and heights and they have to be conquered one by one.

[@clothar23]

Yeah that's why most sieges were just starving out the defenders. Trying to take something with that many hard points would be suicide. You'd lose entire companies trying to take each and every single tower.

[@lauraconnolly1184]

Honestly, unless you had people on the inside of ALL of the castles, it would be best to avoid the area

[@Halo_Legend]

Or starved.

[@chrismath149]

@@clothar23 Many/Some (German*) medieval towns had farms on the inside as well. Gardens and fields on the outskirts but within the townwall could at least provide some food and extend the siege. * Don't know if this holds true for other geographical regions, the lecture I heard was specifically about a medieval German town and medieval Germany in a more general sense. I am also not sure how common it was.

[@AkodoAkira1]

"Sigh. Just burn the whole thing. Let's see if those castles are heat proof or really tall ovens."

[@remor698]

How has this city flown under the radar this hard? Even if it is just generally referred to as a city of towers, this thing is a medieval city with a proper, modern day skyline. How is that not something to write home about? Even after watching this whole 40 minute video, this place still feels super surreal. It's as you said, like this whole castle city was just taken straight out of a fantasy book. Absolutely incredible.

[@MegaZsolti]

I want to see this from the traveler's perspective.

[@whisped8145]

Now lean back and just really think about the idea of Venice for a moment...

[@beepbop6542]

@@MegaZsolti The birds eye view sketch legit looks like a 60s sci fi comic

[@bakachan3601]

@@whisped8145 it's nuts. A city with water where streets should be, and boats instead of carriages? If you think about it.

[@joachimjuergens1287]

maybe this comes from a non-european perspective... Countries with a very unified material culture oftentimes don't realise how many different culures are packed in such small countries as Switzerland for example. Everyone knows that the Scottish, Irish and Welsh do not to like to be called Englishmen, but that there are man different regional cultures within England, that are equally hostile against eachother, is ignored. And that isn't just a thing among the guys and gals from the UK but, applies to almost all of Europe.

[@jacopotematico55]

Hi Shad, Italian here! Most Italian cities, small and big, had towers dotting the historical centers even towns that didn't really made the news. Most of the towers where distroyed in the late XIX century because they coulnd't repair them properly, it was sad but at the time they lost the knowledge and most of the families that made the towers didn't exist anymore so most of them went into disrepair.

[@shigo_fv]

Upquote this! In Italy we have a lot of castle! Shad wuold love it to visit them all! (Which is impossible for their density, just in Tuscany we have a lot of them!)

[@Enyavar1]

Bologna was _NOT UNIQUE_ as there were other cities like it. Lucca had more of these towers: 250. Then there were Siena, Florence, Pisa, Pavia, San Gimignano, Perugia... It's just that many other cities got rid of most of them, and only few cities kept more than a dozen - like Bologna did. One of the basic conflicts in the time was between Guelphs and Ghibellines, who were distributed all over the cities in Italy, and the plots of the period would make GRR Martin embarassed because GoT is so quaint and simplistic.

[@shigo_fv]

@@Enyavar1 indeed, in Siena ( where i live) we suffered the loss of our castle/towers when Florence attacked us and won in 1500 :( but when you roam around the City you can still see the towers, since they just been cut and not totally demolished. They where a sign of wealth and power so the winner cut them in half for representation of loss. They are a LOT! ( i've done reaserch about them in high school )

[@andrewp8284]

@@Enyavar1 is it possible that Bologna had or still has a lot of the tallest towers, compared to other Italian cities?

[@sakesaurus1706]

@@Enyavar1 italian history is bloodier than human body

[@DygoKnight]

It's insane to imagine how people in the 12th century built those 100-meter tall narrow towers. I will definitely use this city as inspiration for my D&D campaigns.

[@aztralsea]

Precisely my thoughts

[@rachdarastrix5251]

No it's not, I would have done the same thing if I were around back then and had the funding for the construction and tasked with building a city. Ok, well actually, I admit, no I would not have, because technically... I would have made them at least 8 times thicker than necessary, and with a large number of unnecessary pillars for a unnecessary level of structural integrity, just as a way of testing the limit of how long I could build them to last... But you gottah understand.... It is a form of art.

[@carlothecoffeeguy3778]

Great idea! If you're looking for more historical inspiration for such a setting I recommend David Nicolle's books on Italian medieval armies, they give great insight into the men who lived in and fought for these cities - including the role urban towers played in such warfare

[@hamstsorkxxor]

I swear, the venn diagram of Shads viewers and D&D players is just a freakin circle!

[@rachdarastrix5251]

@@hamstsorkxxor Not always. Sometimes it is a square, sometimes it is a star, in fact it is actually a star more often than it is a circle. Sometimes it is a hexagon, because sadly they have been proven better than the better looking octagon, and at times it is even a star with 21 points. Currently it is a star with 11 points, a star with 27 points outside of that, and a circle outside of that. Between the outer star and the circle are circles, squares, and rectangles. Also someone keeps putting a rectangle with a fatter square and 3 triangles on top in there, with a wider top half than bottom half.

[@andrearovati]

Here in Italy many cities have the nickname of "city of a hundred towers", even my city Pavia. I'll list them for you, just because the wikipedia page is exclusively in Italian, if I remember correctly: Alba, Albenga, Ascoli Piceno, Asti, Bologna (obviously), Chieri, Lucca, Pavia (as I said above), San Gimignano, Viterbo and Tarquinia . In all these cities you can see towers still intact.

[@jacobbaker5442]

Always hated climbing the san Gimignano towers in AC II . . .

[@TheKazragore]

I've been to San Gimignano. It's a beautiful place to explore.

[@MariuszChwalba]

This comment is underrated.

[@manicmarauder]

Awesome intel, thanks for sharing :)

[@riccardocalosso5688]

Greetings from Asti! If you want to explore one of those cities, pick any of the others!

[@AngryDuck79]

I usually skip the "message from our sponsor" bits in videos, especially if they're for a product I already know about, but I gotta tell you, when Shad shills a product, he makes it worth watching him do so.

[@noral9111]

Honestly, Shad should include the sponsor in the thumbnail. I would watch the most boring 4-hour-video he could come up with just for the Hello Fresh segment :'D

[@ondrejm5042]

I was about to make a similar comment, so i just add mi like to yours to make it more visible than just mine lonely comment hidden in 1364 comments. I love such creative adds, not many YTbers i know/follow are doing that.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

But would they really deliver into a war torn country like Ukraine, Syria or Jemen?

[@estaticethan1752]

How brave of the delivery man to go through a battlefield, where he would've stopped, just so he can get to the Lord on time to send him a gift. Mad respect.

[@ligh7foo7]

Why didn't he just sneak through the Sally door under the cover of darkness

[@leandersearle5094]

@@ligh7foo7 He has 12 more deliveries to make on a slim wage. Ain' nobody got time for that.

[@mithrasmiles7352]

I live in Pavia and it's sometimes called 'la città delle cento torri'(the city of one hundred towers) most of them have fallen unfortunately. But it also was full of towers up to 80 meters tall.

[@Likexner]

Prague is called the same thing.

[@carolinaalberdingi]

Compatriota Pavese 💪

[@riograndedosulball248]

Stay consoled, they haven't fallen as harder as *King Francis of France, who fell in the Frundsberg's hands* :V Lärman vor Pavia!

[@RauMins]

I like the image that HelloFresh tried to deliver the food to Shad but the guards just didn't let them it, causing HelloFresh to deploy ALL their troops to lay siege to the castle. "WE WILL DELIVER IN TIME!! WHAT EVER IT TAKES!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

[@corvus_armatura7595]

WE'RE BRINGING IN THE MEALS EVEN IF IT KILLS US!! OR BETTER YET THEM!!

[@friendlypunk8975]

I'm embarrassed by the fact that I lived two years in Italy and have made Italian language and culture into my hobby and livelihood and only ever heard about Bologna's architecture because of the university there. Learning about the reasons behind these towers was amazing and I'm happy I watched!

[@simonwoods2169]

Reject the modern skyscrapers, embrace the medieval towers. Also love from Italy.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

Castles even!

[@peterwall8191]

*Simon Woods* No thanks !The heating bill on those places is murder. Plus , peeping ghosts messing with my computers.. I mean no WI-Fi reception ? What is this, the stone age?

[@jannikheidemann3805]

@@peterwall8191 Get ECC memory and CAT6 cable.

[@futeramonfuturamet4830]

These towers were the skyscrapers of medieval Italy.

[@willharper1326]

I’m actually happy to see solo Shad. Knights Watch is fun, but solo Shad rocks.

[@theblancmange1265]

The cringe squad is only here for the sponsor. Some improvement.

[@stevenn1940]

I'll watch shad videos..when there is ONLY shad.

[@dom3225]

Yeah I've stopped watching the last few videos because I enjoyed listening to him talk to us alone and explain things. He knew how to share his passion with us. But for the group videos I am a bit more picky since the content vibe is not the same.

[@morrigankasa570]

Knights Watch was better when they played the D&D as well as the other Tabletop RPG. Don't care for the other content on that channel.

[@gsk1299]

rooks*

[@rickycatta5152]

I'm from Bologna, and I'm beyond grateful to you for covering my beloved city!!

[@OperationDarkside]

I really thought at the start, that this was a fantasy setting. If I'd have lived in medieval times, this would have been a must-see spot. I would have walked 500 miles and 500 more, just to see those towers.

[@markfergerson2145]

Not just you Shad, I'll be 70 this year and never heard of it until now. Thanks for this. The idea fits perfectly in a story I'm writing.

[@danieleorlando3297]

I'm from Bologna and I have been to the top of one of the surviving towers. The Pianura Padana is so flat that you can easily see the surrounding cities with even just modest elevation.

[@ccityplanner1217]

36:42: The towers on that engraving are supposed to have letters next to them telling what type of tower they are. The key is at left: T. = torre = tower, C.T. = casa torre = tower house, TS. = torresotto = tower base, T.C. = torre campanaria = bell tower.

[@astolfocomunista954]

Hi shad! :) Thank you for making a video on my city! I'm very glad it's getting some recognition. I feel like telling you some things about it that probably you cannot find in English but are nonetheless intresting. At 15:00 you talk about foundation issues, which are true, but many fell because the tower base walls' were made thinner to make more space for the people who lived there and also (unrelated to the video, but I think you will like to know this fact) The bases made in medieval times were used as a trap, if someone was to enter the tower without the owner's consent he'd fall in a sorta dungeon, this was also one of the defence mechanism of the tower. About how towers were called (I cannot remember the timestamp) , we call them simply Torre (tower) or Casa-torre (tower house). On the matter of the language, the bolognese people spoke their dialect called bolognese, it's an Italo-gallic language so it's similar to French. Bolognese is referenced in one of Dantes book called de volgari eloquentia. At around 30:00 you talk about a possible war between towers-houses, which I don't know anything about but I know about the fall of the Caccianemici family who became enemies of the ruling family, the Bentivoglio, the Caccianemicis had a fortified house in which they lived in and when their enemies came to kill them a part of the family hid in their tower. And lastly I want to say that many towers still exist but they were incorporated inside another building and they were made smaller, many times if you walk around Bologna you will see houses with some kind of little tower top poking out of the roof, they're called altane.

[@aurex8937]

And of course the bolognese here has to be a damn communist.

[@windmill9998]

​@@aurex8937 what are you talking about..?

[@aurex8937]

@@windmill9998 He's from Bologna, and Bologna is well-known for harboring a lot of communists. Incidentally, his profile name is "Astolfocommunist" which only reinforces the stereotype that people from Bologna are communists and degenerates (Astolfo is apparently a crossdressing character.)

[@legasius9358]

The ability of hello fresh workers to get through walls is excellent for supplying the defenders, but I can't help but think of how amazing this could be for the attacker

[@BlackHei711]

Ever heard of the Trojan Horse? I'd like you to meet the Trojan delivery guy.

[@legasius9358]

@@BlackHei711 "hi, I'm your delivery man, my name is Achill... Stopregkyhkdh -doesn't matter, call me Tim. Mind if I open the main gate for a bit of fresh air?"

[@JonatasAdoM]

Imagine a road full of food deliverers going back and forth during a siege.

[@shinsenshogun900]

The power of military logis

[@jwisemanm]

As far as I know they called them towers. There are a few contemporary descriptions of the city, and the most used term is "torre" (tower). Most of the surviving buildings still bear the original names, or names they were known by at the time... and almost all of them contain the word "torre". Also, despite Bologna being the foremost example of this phenomenon , it wasn't the only city where nobles would build fortified towers to live in, inside the city walls: every somewhat independent italian city-state (of wich there were MANY) has a number of this buildings, from Lucca to Rovigo. Cheers from Bologna.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

🍻🍝

[@kevinabiwardani7550]

I know Age of Empires 2 castle spams can be so silly. But to see that it was a historical reality? Thank you for making my day, Shad :).

[@thilordtachanka314]

cant belive we are the only 2 AOE2 fans that commented about it , i guess great minds think alike

[@a.j.rivera4619]

Hello Shad! I'm a long time viewer that has never left a comment before but this topic is close to my heart! I'm fascinated by this kind of tower-castle-city architecture. And so, I wondered if you had ever heard of the Vainakh peoples? Their nickname is "The People of the Towers" or the "Tower Builders". Also, the Svan people built cities made of nothing but castles. Extremely interesting stuff! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vainakh_tower_architecture en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushguli

[@skjaldulfr]

San Gimignano in Italy also used to have a lot of urban towers. It still has a few of the towers. It's a more compact city, on a hilltop. Some of the turrets that Weta Workshop designed for Minas Tirith seem to be imitations of an extant tower in San Gimignano.

[@scardy92]

14 towers are still standing in San Gimignano! Apparently there used to be up to 70, and that was a smaller town than Bologna

[@Enyavar1]

@@scardy92 Lucca had 250. This was an architectural trend all over Italy, in very specofic cities, but there were dozens of such cities. Contrary to Shad's assurance, this was not a unique city.

[@abburobinson]

I'm glad you mentioned San Gimignano because I also remember cities with many towers being an Italian thing and not just a Bologna thing

[@tipi5586]

@@Enyavar1 I don't think he assured us of the mutual exclusivity. Tbh he openly admitted his ignorance on the topic multiple times. Gotta be fair.

[@andrewj1754]

Assassin’s Creed 2 put San Gimignano on my radar as a city unique for its towers… perhaps not as unique as I thought!

[@golfmike4805]

I live in Bologna. I'm so pleased to hear some international youtuber speaking about my city.

[@ZeroSalvator]

My father loved visiting Bolonga very much, he had some of his long time friends there. He actually told me about the earlier days of the city. It has been such a long time that I had forgotten about it and I have never seen a very good representation of what the city looked like in this period. Thank you so much for making this video Shad it was a wonderful reminder of great memories I have of my dad. It is coming up on five years since his passing to very unforeseen cancer, I miss him very much and wish he could have seen this he would have loved it to no end. Thank you Shad, Best Regards and God's Blessings on you and your's. Z

[@FirstLast-wk3kc]

5:27 I am glad to see as shad still struggles with accents, nostalgia from his cogent game with "da boys" of the hema community hits hard!

[@adamblakeslee5301]

BUT WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS- Honestly, I think a city like this would be very resistant to dragons both because of the risk of colliding with a stone tower and being shot at from multiple angles.

[@daanvanrijn4117]

Depends on the size of the dragons

[@JD-128]

@@daanvanrijn4117 Very true. If your dragons were big enough, they could probably just fly into the towers and cause a domino-tree effect. Of course, the OP's point about being shot at from multiple angles is true too, but so is what Shad said: Firing _down_ is much easier to do effectively than firing _up._ Even smaller dragons could fly above, out of arrow range, and rain down devouring fire on all those wooden... however-you-spell-its. Would that actually be enough to destroy the city? I don't know, what do you think?

[@gauntlettcf5669]

Also, thanks for the piece on Italian History. It's not very well known abroad, but the Lombard League did in fact revolt and kick the HRE out of its newly formed territories twice. Imagine that, single cities that hated eachother (and they vehemntly did so, trust me) banded together the first time to expell an emperor that they felt was a foreigner to them and a tyrant, and the second time to prevent him from trying to take them back WITH A FULL ON IMPERIAL ARMY. The funny part is that right after defeating him, the newly independent city-states started fighting each other, right after sweraing that if some other nation tried again to subdue them, they would band together again. And it did work for a while, to be completely honest, but then the Countries like France and Spain became far too strong to be repelled. I'm from one of the independent cities that took part in the League, Brescia, and we still remember the battles our ancestors fought for their freedom. Later on, they became allies with The Most Serene Republic of Venice and became their most loyal servants (they ended up donating to our city one of their famous St. Mark Lions, and gave it the city motto "Brixia Fidelis" - "Brescia the Loyal" and also called her "the Lioness", "the worthy bride of the Lion" (which was Venice))

[@ChristianAuditore14]

I am more of a emperor than the fake Romans leader

[@dudeguy8686]

Huge respect to that history, and with it, the mafia families that made it here to the States make a lot more sense

[@mattiaroccaro3544]

I am so glad that a fellow bresciano follows Shad and shares so much knowledge to an international audience about our beautyful city!

[@turkoositerapsidi]

Does Brescia have any tower castles?

[@mattiaroccaro3544]

@@turkoositerapsidi Not like Bologna or San Gimignano, most of our city towers didn’t survive the Renaissance and the XIX century. But we still have vestiges of late medieval fortifications that were common in our communal past: we have a city castle on the top of a hill in the middle of the city (the keep is the seat of the city Arms and Armours museum, that hosts one of the largest collection of medieval weaponry in Italy), we have a medieval city hall with a tower (Broletto), and we have a surviving medieval tower between two important piazzas (piazza della Loggia and Piazza del duomo).

[@ligh7foo7]

Two Towers fighting would be the land equivalent of a broadside brawl between 2 age of sail battleships.

[@RauMins]

I find this City of Castles so fascinating, not only is this incredible for any fantasy worldbuilding, but also just the idea of an army looking over at this heavily fortified city and thinking: "Do we REALLY want to lay siege to THAT!". I would imagine that trying to take over such a heavily fortified city would be a nightmare! Also, how practical are several layers of hoardings? you can drop stuff from the first one, but not from the other ones, but I guess you could use those to fire arrows from.

[@Sigilstone17]

"It looks like a fantasy city" that's because truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to be limited to what's possible, truth has no such obligation

[@Likexner]

No, that doesnt make sense.

[@noobatredstone3001]

No.. quite the opposite. I get what you mean though

[@Sigilstone17]

Yinz fools need to learn more Mark Twain

[@noobatredstone3001]

@@Sigilstone17 the author of a quote doesn’t necessarily matter when discussing its truthfulness

[@AngryTheGnome]

Ehy! I'm from Bologna! This video is really well done! All of the info in this video are correct! Now the 2 towers left are called "Garisenda" and "Torre degli asinelli" (technically there is a third one but you can't really visit that one anymore cuz as you mentioned they are collapsing), and they are *tight* inside, only one people at the time can crawl up/down inside the very steep steps. Another fascinating thing about Bologna are the "Portici" which run through all of the city centre and they are amazing. Edit: fact checks

[@nablazquisquiaz]

I'm also from Bologna, and agree 100% with your remarks... although there are a few more medieval towers left standing, but compared to moden buildings around them they don't stand out anymore! Cheers!

[@scottperry6604]

And Guero is a great bar!

[@ImminDragon]

If one of you Bologna locals has the chance, you should try to get pictures of the information he was wishing he could see. No need for him to travel to the other side of the world if someone in the area can help out, right?

[@thilgonerelthil681]

Shad underestimates the italian ability to build something awesome just out of spite

[@dubuyajay9964]

Gnome! XD

[@rusteshackleferd8115]

I greatly appreciate the research Shad puts into his videos.

[@Dellphox]

It really does evoke the saying "truth is stranger than fiction."

[@acemarvel1564]

I remember that scene in the gargoyles cartoon when they make it clear that castles are not around because the biggest threat to a kingdom is within the walls

[@bow-tiedengineer4453]

the clear solution: build many smaller castles within the walls!

[@Titanic_Tuna]

The other videos are great and all, but it's these Castle videos that butter my buns. Hail to the Shadmeister.

[@JammesJammes]

Yea

[@gabrielboi3465]

Loved that you mentioned the war of the Lombard League. It is an almost mythological moment in italian history. My city (como) although in Lombardy, actually fought alongside Emperor Barbarossa, and to thank it for its service, the emperor had new walls raised to it, which are still standing to this day! I had the luck to walk by them everyday as they were next to my high-school!

[@darthguilder1923]

26:28 I remember visiting a cathedral tower in Seville that had inclines instead of stairs, supposedly because the priest would ride a donkey up to go ring the bells. It was still a long way to go but I wonder if any of Bologna’s towers did that

[@gunsgunstiger5238]

I've been in bologna, and i've also been on top of the biggest surviving tower, it was very Impressive. the 5 Euros I payed to visit it where clearly worth it...

[@MattHatter360]

How tough were the steps to get up there? ahahah

[@gunsgunstiger5238]

@@MattHatter360 not tougher than the steps in the Tower of Pisa or the Kölner Dom. to get on top of those buildings you surely need to have some stamina, but i can only repeat that it was worth it every time...

[@carlothecoffeeguy3778]

I once used the concept of a 'City of Towers' in a D&D setting, part of the wider story was that different factions within the city take sides in the kingdom's wider civil conflict leading to an entrenched war within the city itself. Historically there are cases of nobles launching rocks at each other with catapults from these private fortresses during the medieval Italian wars.

[@Niskirin]

Launching rocks with catapults I can believe, but catapults themselves? I guess they did have gunpowder of sorts, so maybe if they strapped enough rockets on a catapult it might theoretically be possible? I'm certain there is better use of explosive stuff than flinging inconveniently huge and expensive things like that tho.

[@InfernosReaper]

One of the official D&D settings(Eberron) had a "city of towers" and it kinda sucked. The people making it didn't really understand the architecture or engineering for it. They just wanted to do something like modern skyscrapers in a fantasy setting. I suspect your take on the concept is much better than theirs.

[@carlothecoffeeguy3778]

@@Niskirin I meant rocks from catapults, thanks for pointing out the garbled sentence 😂

[@zappodude7591]

tf 2 real life

[@pietrobianchi2334]

I was born and currently live in Bologna, I LOVE MY CITY, thank you very much Shad for making a video about my city !!!!

[@devanpretorius451]

This is the most amazing and interesting thing I've ever seen period. It looks so out of place and does look like a fantasy city. Thanks Shad for showing us such wonders and astonishing places.

[@salavat294]

In the northern Caucasus in regions around the Terek, Assa, and Sunzha rivers in modern day Ossetia, and Inigushetia, have one of the densest concentrations fortified towers. These regions were, up to the 20th century, ruled by family clans. From time to time these clans would feud, and these towers were a family refuge. In fact, individual farms were built as fortresses.

[@redmage777]

I always thought the open spiral stair cases in the Kings Quest games were so silly. But it actually makes perfect sense in a castle. Just imagine how hard it would be for Graham or Rosella if they didn't only have to deal with the edge of the stairs, but also arrows raining down on them from above?

[@SkillTree]

I always learn so much from you. Thanks for the informative/entertaining content!

[@velquar]

This is incredible, Shad. City of Castles looks epic AF. But on a serious note, in Poland where I live in small city called Ząbkowice Śląskie (medieval name of the city was Frankenstein and was founded in 1280 AD) there is a castle tower named Crooked Tower (you can look up the city and tower on Wiki). Although it's a bell tower, its design clearly reflects Bologna's. Not much is known about the tower itself (sparse records survived), but it was rumoured that at one point it could have been an asylum for mentally ill and prison of inquisition (for a brief time).

[@MattHatter360]

Yet another cultural connection between Polish and Italians! Our countries even mention eachother in our anthems!

[@Smurfaliscous]

I've been replaying AC2 and you spend some time in San Gimignano which has a very similar skyline, and from what I've read in the database entries a lot of the towers were built in that same era, so that would be another place to look for these castle-towers

[@michaeljh1]

21:50 I've always liked that type of design/aesthetic in castles, but finally just learnt there's a particular name for it.

[@docstockandbarrel]

This is the content that keeps me coming back and makes this channel great.

[@flyingtiger4808]

I find Middle Age Bologna very impressive and beautiful. It’s looks like a modern day city with all those castles being built by the rich nobles. Plus imagine all the wars being fought in the city because one duke decided his 80 story tower was more powerful than a 65 story tower of a Prince.

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

I imagine the one with the shortest tower being the smuggest "is thy compensating for something with thy tall castles"

[@merlinkater7756]

One of the only instances of opposing castles a literal stonethrow removed from one another

[@mdemel06]

That city today would indeed be a wonder to behold. Especially if it was original and still standing. The drawings you showed made it look like the mid-evil New York City or maybe even Dubai or Singapore. Interesting to see that there was an interest to build up rather than out even in those times.

[@darthskarr8975]

Huh. I actually knew about this city from Assassin's Creed 2. I sometimes would stop and marvel at it from the outskirts because the number of towers in the city were both an awesome and unusual site to behold. I actually assumed most Italian Renaissance cities looked like that because of it.

[@YouBro99]

Thats San Gimignano in tuscany you're talking about. In the first moment i also thought he was talking about that city

[@Locahaskatexu]

@@YouBro99 Yeah same here, I was going "Forgotten? did you never play AC2? that's San Gimignano!" xD

[@markfergerson2145]

@@YouBro99 How many damn Medieval cities of castles were there???

[@darthskarr8975]

@@YouBro99 He mentions Sam Gimignano near the start of the video, unless I miss heard, and said he'll be revering to another city that was reportedly the same.

[@Enyavar1]

There were dozens of cities with such towers in Italy at the time, Bologna was not unique. Check out the conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Wikipedia has a superficial summary on the epic tales that played out in these times.

[@matthabir4837]

A frontier city of the Holy Roman Empire... Yes, anyone who has played Medieval II Total War as the German emperor remembers what it was like trying to hold onto Bologna...

[@moonknightish]

Bologna was indipendent. Like many of the northern italian communes, after the victory against Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano, the control of the Holy Roman Empero was only nominal, only a claim, that stayed so until Charles V invaded again in the 1500s

[@MattHatter360]

​@@moonknightish Not to mention they were one of the reasons for one of the most important pieces of Italian literature, if not THE most important.

[@dirckthedork-knight1201]

@@MattHatter360 Which one i may ask?

[@azurE2g]

that was utterly fascinating, thank you for sharing this shad.

[@oldfatman4639]

Thank you to Shad & your team for bringing this to the fore. I hadn't heard of this before and found it mesmerizing. Thanks again for all your hard work.

[@OldieBugger]

My mom teached us kids not to be picky by "OK, don't eat it then". And when the poor entitled-kid-to-be asked for something else, the answer was a strict "No". We all learned from that, pretty fast. I can recommend the same method to any fresh parent.

[@eirrenia]

Wow! What an incredible setting for story. We talk about how geography and resources influences attitudes, but who needs a mountain when practically your whole city is a fortified trap for besiegers. You can just feel the giant “screw you” radiating outward. And of course there is the internal conflicts as mentioned. Got to wonder how it affected the city’s class structures.

[@neofd3223]

Hey Wales got a mention! That’s cool. Great video Shad, medieval Manhattan’s fascinating. I never knew about the tower castles of bologna, thanks for the information!

[@illogicalherald8462]

Nice to see Shad making more castle content. I really like his castle content.

[@Adam_okaay]

110-200 Castles in one city?!?! That's Bologna! Sorry had to make the dad joke.

[@Enyavar1]

Lucca had 250... joke's on you!

[@TheMew35]

We nearly had a citadel in my hometown: In the early renaissance a bishop from the nearby bigger city wanted a new home for himself and started to build the citadel, but he died before the completion. Because the people from the bigger city wanted the new bishop to reside again in their city, they came shortly after the old bishops death and brought nearly all stones from the citadel back to their city. So now there are only the two side walls of the main entrance still standing.

[@rebeccashedd8115]

I love this! I recently stumbled upon a depiction of medieval Bologna and it blew my mind. It was a big inspiration for the fantasy novel I'm currently working on.

[@EHeathRobinson]

This was absolutely fascinating.

[@jameskhan8573]

I love your Hello Fresh skits. They are one of the most favorite parts of your videos, so keep making them.

[@DonatoVicenti]

I can't believe it ❤️ it's a dream, Shad talking about the city I live in and love ❤️

[@MrAgamble]

One of your best videos, amazing topic, all questions that came up in my head were answered, fun ad, a lot of energy, loved it!

[@TheKeeperOfKnowledge]

Passed this video by the first time (mostly due to length). That was a big mistake. It's been a while since I've seen something this awesome and your video has convinced be to add Bologna to my travel itinerary if I ever visit Italy.

[@Athkore]

Me: Truly fascinating. Also me: Man this would make for an awesome D&D setting.

[@rosskwolfe]

When I lived in Spain was when I learned just how many castles were little more than a single tower on top of a hill.

[@LucarioBoricua]

It makes sense. The King was the sovereign ruler, so you have one such person per country (unless it's an empire, in which case it'd be the emperor who's sovereign), but then you have many more of the intermediate nobles (dukes, counts, marquises, princes, etc.) and lots of the lesser nobles (barons, baronettes or just plain lords). The lesser nobles, when they were allowed to fortify, would build comparatively modest castles as residences. The Iberian peninsula, of course, had multiple kingdoms (Castille, Aragon, Navarre, León, Portugal, Córdoba/Granada, the Basque County), which were gradually unified throughout the Reconquista, until only Portugal and the Castille-Aragon personal union survived (the de-facto birth of Spain) as sovereign entities, and there's of course the tiny anomalies in Gibraltar (British colony) and Andorra (closest thing we have to a Prince-Bisphoric state today).

[@ragdollcatledaandherbutlerstef]

At the beginning castles were only a single tower on top of a hill having a Wall around it

[@robbiereed4462]

Wow this is amazing. Thank you for sharing.

[@amyjudy33]

Awesome video! Thanks for creating and sharing!!!

[@_bisclavret]

Ayy! As someone who has studied the writings of Christine de Pizan, the towers of Bologna were fascinating! I've always wondered if they were still standing when Christine was born and if she saw them when she visited her father's lecture hall at the city college.

[@Symptomofsynesthesy]

I like the fact that you said Bologna correctly 😃🇮🇹 However in this case I suggest to you the city of San Gimignano that still has some of his towers intact

[@turkoositerapsidi]

I did read from comments here that many said the tower castles were build in several Italian cities, and Shad did respond to some of these comments as well. I guess you may have all this knowledge already as you are Italian, right? And may have already seen Shad responses.

[@shesaidyousaid6181]

Glad to see more history content

[@YanestraAgain]

Really really great, thank you, Shad!

[@killergandalf]

Another "city of Castles" in Italy it's San Gimignano. Of it's 72 towers, only 13 remains but still Is an Amazing view

[@MicheleAllori]

Amazig place! I go back there every 2 years!

[@gauntlettcf5669]

My my, another italian-cities estimateur 😍

[@killergandalf]

@@gauntlettcf5669 being an italian myself, it's hard not to be xD

[@MicheleAllori]

@@gauntlettcf5669 Italian guy, so, more like an Italian city dweller

[@alessandrodanovaro181]

Another Italian here, most cities had tower castles within, including Genova, which is where I’m from. However, (can’t remember when) because of the intollerabile warfare, all but one tower got taken down

[@alexmag342]

@Alessandro Danovaro Are there any old depictions? And do you know where i can read more about the history of Génova? I dont mind it being in italian i actually would prefer it, i can mostly understand apart from the odd word, since its a branch of latin like portuguese

[@freddymcfred17]

This is super interesting and fills my head with fun ideas I can use for set piece encounters in a D&D campaign.

[@rtfirefly8092]

So cool! Thank you for this!

[@marekpastyrik1888]

amazing reality is truly stranger than fiction

[@FoggyFogzmeister]

My mind is blown. They built a city of towers, fortified ones at that!, almost 1000 years ago?! That's just incredible 😲😄

[@Enyavar1]

nah, most of the towers were created just 900 or 800 years ago. ;-) But for real, 1000 years of recorded history is pretty standard for European cities and towns. Have you heard of Akkadian and Sumerian cities, where they had much more impressive fortified palace-towers, between (very roughly) 3000 and 5000 years ago? Of course I'm talking about yet another time period again, but I find _them_ even more incredible.

[@turkoositerapsidi]

@@Enyavar1 Mesopotamians had several empires and mighty fortifications and palaces very early on in history indeed, but I do not know if they had a city full of tower castles.

[@Enyavar1]

@@turkoositerapsidi Oh hey, that was just my reaction to someone amazed by a standard Italian town that was built just a few hundred years ago. Sure the Sumerians didn't have more than one tower in their cities usually, but look up how big their ziggurat castles were. 🤩

[@turkoositerapsidi]

@@Enyavar1 Yea, you are right, ziggurats are mighty structures, or at least they were as many are in ruins, but weren't they temples and not castles or fortifications?

[@Enyavar1]

@@turkoositerapsidi in short: residences of priest-kings, so all the functions of temple, palace, fortress and emergency storages

[@redtesla]

Had to look this up. I'm glad you pointed it out in your rant.

[@Grayard]

thank you buddy, great content

[@Noah-jx8qw]

WOW, I love your castle videos. Thank you for making these!

[@joelcopeland3018]

Your historical knowledge is priceless. I enjoy your knowledge. Please keep sharing. Thanks for what you do.

[@perfectparadox7389]

I wish I would’ve known about this as a kid, I would have been absolutely obsessed with the idea of a castle city!!

[@johnf7332]

Love the castle history! Such fascinating stuff

[@Monszerkeks7]

Check out San Gimignano with its many towers too! You can visit it in Assassins Creed 2 if you can't go there in person :)

[@Groddon]

Greeting Shad. Im very happy you discover italian free commons! Living near Viterbo, I'm very familiar with the tower of noble families in medieval cities. Hope you come to Italy some day: there are many reenactment medieval festival here.

[@jonw5]

This is one of your best pieces of content ever!!!!!!

[@demetriopedrini8201]

A video on Bologna. Nice! Always happy to see people appreciating my hometown

[@antronaut_7740]

00:56 Castles, castles. What are castles? I want to talk about castles. Love it! 😂

[@stephentomsky9576]

New meaning to the phrase "tower defense"

[@giovannisarmenghi4370]

Loved this video!! Nice to see my city in a video like this!!

[@yellowhoodie5299]

Interesting details I’ve noticed and discovered of the city: • The Castles are still leaning, even in the old illustrations. This suggests to me that they are considerably older than we might assume them to be. • There are other, tower-like Castles in the Emilia-Romagna administrative region of Italy which are of similar design; hundreds of years older than the assumed age of Balogna’s buildings. • Most, if not all of the Castles were built over Selenite crystal.

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

Lord Shad as the proud lover of castles as you are. It would seem that you have found the crown jewel of medieval castles and that was the legendary city of castles of Bologna. This city you could say was one of the melting pots of the old world where people of many trades could come there to see what the city had to offer. However as great as the city of castles is against certain armies, which can/were repelled. But what about dragons or giants?