22/10/2026
Its story goes back more than 1,500 years, to Byzantine Florence. And it has quite a few stories to tell.
Once a women’s prison, the Torre della Pagliazza took its name from the straw (paglia) mattresses prisoners slept on. Later, it served as a church bell tower and even became part of a small hotel, Albergo Giglio.
Meanwhile, Florence kept growing around it, gradually hiding the tower from view. Until architect Italo Gamberini brought it back to light in the 1980s.
Today, it stands at the heart of our home.
