Torre dei Prendiparte, Medieval tower in Bologna, Italy

Torre dei Prendiparte, also called Torre Coronata, is a 59.5-metre tower (61 metres with its pinnacle) built in the second half of the 12th century, leaning slightly north. Its base walls, about 2.8 metres thick, are faced with nine courses of selenite blocks. A setback about 50 metres up gives it the crowned name; the south side, the only one free of houses, has an original window at roughly 20 metres and a worn 15th-century sandstone coat of arms.

The tower was erected in the second half of the 12th century for the Guelph Prendiparte family, documented in Bologna from 1154. It was first sold in 1293 for 500 lire, then returned to the family, who left it definitively in the 15th century to the Fabruzzi. In the 16th century it passed to the Church and between 1751 and 1796 housed the curia's prison.

The three cells on the intermediate floors hold graffiti scratched into the walls by prisoners held here between 1751 and 1796, when the tower served as the curia's jail. One inscription is by Angelo Rizzoli, who wrote that he was jailed "for having made two sisters pregnant".

The tower now operates as a guesthouse where visitors can stay overnight and experience medieval architecture firsthand. It is helpful to check access conditions in advance, as the unique spatial layout of an old tower requires some consideration.

The tower formed part of the "Triade dei Grattacieli Medievali" with the Galluzzi and Azzoguidi towers: three Guelph families at strategic points across Bologna. Its nickname Coronata comes from a setback about 50 metres up that thins the walls.