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The Matilde Tower is the monument, around which the city’s original nucleus developed. It was built in proximity of the mouth of the Selice ditch (now called the Burlamacca canal) between 1534 and 1541 in order to give military protection to the Republic’s only seaport against the raids of the Barbary pirates, since the old Castle dated 1172 was, by then, too distant from the coastline due to the continuous regression of the sea. The square building’s dimensions are about 10m by 10m by 18m in height.

The buiding of Torre Matilde took seven years using materials taken from the defense section of the ancient castle. It was equipped with bombards and cannons and had a very special garrison, formed by soldiers who had distinguished themselves for indiscipline or were guilty of various crimes. The tower, with a typically defensive function, had to defend both the stores and the administrator’s palace, built in 1546, and to protect the entire estuary and the small village against any landing by barbarian corsairs, very frequent in the area. The first settlement was formed by the tower, the public warehouses for grain and salt and the house of the beach administrator, the construction of which was approved in 1546. It was a sort of barrier to the buildings behind, set along the canal and along the road to Lucca and Pietrasanta. In 1549 a proper community started to develop with the building of the first 'hostaria grande’ on the ‘via regia’, the first inn in the area, and coaching inn since 1550. The community’s main activities - trade, agriculture, fishing and hunting - were intensified in 1559, when the government expanded the “sciorinatoio”, a place used for drying the grain. In the meantime the beach administrator started the construction of a small church, dedicated to St. Peter (1559) and which was later incorporated in the church of SS. Annunziata, and the construction of tanks for water supply. In 1576 the “Offizio sopra la Foce” was established with the function of providing for the maintenance of the trade movement and in the same period the first stores on the beach were built. The tower is improperly called "Torre Matilde", because its construction was erroneously attributed to the Duchess Matilda of Canossa, who died in 1115, long before the construction of the tower. The tower, equipped with bombards and cannons, had a garrison composed of very special soldiers chosen from among those who had distinguished themselves for indiscipline or who were guilty of various crimes. Around 1700 the public clock, which previously stood on the facade of the beach administrator’s palace, was moved to the top of the tower. A resident of the village was appointed for its functioning and maintenance. He was paid by the community with a tax, for which each family had to pay four soldi per year. In 1748 the Council of Lucca decreed that the task had to be accomplished by the soldiers at service to the tower, and later, in 1832, the clock was replaced and in 1842 was put out of order by lightning. On the 15th of April 1780 a terrible storm hit Viareggio and the surrounding countryside and a bolt of lightning struck the tower without blowing up the gunpowder store, killing the bomber Luigi Pallavicini who fell from the window. For the just avoided tragedy, from that year the Community celebrated every April 15 a thanksgiving mass, the 'Voto di Comune' which became a traditional feast.

Viareggio

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