Torre del Parco, Renaissance tower in Lecce, Italy

Torre del Parco is a limestone tower with symmetrical proportions and architectural features typical of Renaissance military design from the 15th century. The structure displays squared foundations and straightforward details that served both defensive and residential purposes.

Tradition attributes the complex to Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo in 1419, but no document proves that founding date. In 1434 a wing housed the Concistorium Principis, the tribunal he presided over, and a mint striking gold and silver carlini. Between 1458 and 1461 the tower held prisoners who carved their laments into the arrow-slit embrasures of the lower floor. After his death it passed to governors such as Ferrante Loffredo and Ferrante Caracciolo.

The bears kept in the moat gave the Orsini del Balzo family's heraldic animal a real presence at the tower. In 1434 a wing housed the Concistorium Principis, the tribunal presided over by Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo, and the complex also held the mint striking the gold and silver coins known as "mali carlini".

The tower stands in Lecce's historic centre, a short walk from the city's main sights. Since 1992 it has been privately owned and restored as a venue for receptions, events and ceremonies, so interior access depends on those bookings rather than on regular visiting hours.

In the ditch around the tower, bears were once kept, the heraldic animal of the Orsini del Balzo family. Between 1458 and 1461 prisoners held in the fortress scratched their laments into the splayed openings of the arrow slits on the lower floor; the graffiti can still be seen there.