Torre Campanaria Chiesa San Pietro in Vinculis e Porta Urbica

Atika’s eye for the curious is drawn to this tower: a forthright, four-square campanile in bare masonry, rising in three tiers. It is not merely a bell-tower. Its ground floor is a city gate, a barrel-vaulted passage cutting through the base on a north-south axis, a reminder that medieval walls and worship were often built cheek by jowl. On the west side of the first level, a stone walkway, vaulted beneath, bridges across from the church of San Pietro in Vinculis, creating a second, unexpected underpass. The bell chamber above is marked by a stone string-course and opens on all four sides with round-arched windows; the roof is flat. What catch the eye, though, are the zoomorphic stone heads set into the keystones and springers of the gate arch, one on the north, one on the south. Their weathered faces stare out, silent guardians of a passage that has seen centuries of feet pass beneath.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.