Bissara Tower is a civic tower that overlooks Piazza dei Signori, alongside the famous Basilica Palladiana. With its 82 meters is one of the tallest buildings in Vicenza. The earliest records date back to 1174 when the tower was built at the behest of the family Bissari, next to their palazzo. Between 1211 and 1229 the municipality of Vicenza bought both the building and the tower. Escaped the terrible earthquake of January 25, 1347, it was raised in the mid- fifteenth century to reach the present height. Inside were placed the relics of saints and the five bells. There were many interventions which, over the centuries, were done to maintain the stability and beauty of the tower. The history of the city is described in its stones: on top there is a headless statue of the goddess Athena from the Roman era; almost at the top there is the marble bas-relief of the Lion of Saint Mark, symbol of the Serenissima; at the base is a triumphal arch with the war memoria. On 18 March 1945, the tower was hit in an Anglo-American bombing raid. The top of the tower caught fire and the dome collapsed to the ground: the tower was severed. The bells also had fallen off, destroying the pavement of the square. Together with the Basilica, in the years after the tower was rebuilt, not without controversy concerning the form, in part different from the original. Not all of the bells were also relocated, nor the ball indicating the moon's phases. In 2002 the project for a radical restoration of the tower was approved. The intervention moved in two directions: on the one hand the subsidence of the foundations, the other, the restoration of the external surfaces, ornaments and decorations. The dial has been painted cobalt blue, the sphere of the moon's phases has been repositioned and the bells replaced. A feature of the tower is, in addition to the normal sound of the hours and half-hours, also the ninth hour. This is a particular melody composed by Maestro Valtinoni is played seven minutes before noon and seven minutes before six p.m. The largest bell, in a tone of I, was created in 1663 by the foundry of Christopher Murari.
