A campanile is a bell tower, particularly one that stands apart from the church to which it belongs. The word comes from the Italian campana, meaning bell, and the free-standing tower is especially characteristic of Italian architecture, though the term is used more widely for any tall, slender bell tower.
Italian campanili appeared from the early Middle Ages and became prominent civic and religious landmarks. Celebrated examples include the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is the campanile of Pisa Cathedral, the campanile of St Mark's in Venice, and Giotto's campanile beside Florence Cathedral, clad in coloured marble. Many are square in plan, with storeys of round-arched openings increasing towards the belfry and a pyramidal roof or spire. In Victorian Britain, the Italianate style brought campanile-like towers to country houses, villas, railway stations, town halls and churches, and the form also appeared in later Byzantine Revival architecture. The motif turns up in the decorative arts too, in architectural clock cases, models and garden follies. Architectural fragments, bells and weather vanes from such towers occasionally reach the salvage market.
