Torre della pagliazza, Byzantine tower in central Florence, Italy

Torre della Pagliazza stands on Piazza Sant'Elisabetta in Florence's oldest centre. Its semicircular plan, rare in medieval Florence, rests on a circular Roman wall that enclosed a pool or room of secondary baths; excavations revealed the original brick floor. The tower now forms part of a hotel, with a small archaeological museum at its base.

Built between the sixth and seventh centuries on Roman thermal foundations, it is the oldest remaining building in Florence's historic center. Later it served as a women's prison, showing how its use changed across different eras.

The tower's name comes from the straw mattresses that female prisoners used when it served as a jail in the twelfth century. This naming reflects how deeply the building is tied to its past as a women's detention place.

The small archaeological museum at the tower's base, showing finds from the excavations, is visitable on request. The tower stands in the tiny piazza Sant'Elisabetta in the oldest part of the centre, and the 1983-1988 restoration by Italo Gamberini freed it from the structures that had hidden it from the street.

The tower's semicircular plan, rare in Florence, follows the curve of a Roman exedra wall that enclosed a pool or room of a secondary bath complex; the circular form echoes Roman city walls. Excavations also uncovered the original brick floor and ancient walls.