Stadio Communale Artemio Franchi - Fiorentina

Another great set Of Pictures and another tower, as they are so high, I don't think they would just be observation towers, but can't really think what other purpose they could have.

Superb pics as always Chris. Thanks for making this particular part of the site a tremendous success with wondferful pics like that

EDIT

Pierliugi Nervi was an architect in the Fascist era and his brief was to create arenas where mass political rallies as well as sporting events like football and athletics could be held. It was the same under Communist Regimes in the East.................both ideologies loved to promote health and athleticism as a shining example of their superiority over Capitalist countries like ourselves where the proletariat where exploited to the point of inferior health and sporting excellence.

The tower at Firenze (Florence) has a small balcony near the base from which Mussolini addressed mass crowds and the tower held search lights (The corner floodlight towers are later additions for modern day football) that would pick out significant moments and various luminaries to great dramatic effect. Watch any old footage of Fascist demagogues and you'll see how they "worked the crowd into mass hysteria" The towers at Italian stadia were regarded as "beacons" beckoning the masses to attend - rather like the tower of a church or the miniaret of a mosque.

The stadium at Bologna has a similar tower but built in the classical (rather than the art deco of Firenze) style and in fact still had a bronze statue of Mussolini astride a horse within an arch at the base until1989. This however had been removed for "Political Correctness" by the time I visited there in 1990 for the World Cup. Many Italian cities are still bastions of both Fascism and Communism.

In reality, Italian stadia are light years behind ours in terms of viewing and comfort. Those glass screens are a menace. If you look closely at Chris's picture you'll notice how the reflection ruins the view and the stadium in Genoa (Genoa and Sampdoria) has been christened "the stadium of the blind" by the locals............you can see what's happening directly in front of you, but once the action moves away to the left or the right your vision breaks up into distortions.

Nervi also has a wonderful example to his architectural skills in the capital of Rome where the Flaminio Stadium re - designed and rebuilt by his son Antonio sits not far from his Stadio Olimpico (AS Roma and Lazio) which succeeded it as the National Football Stadium when the latter was constructed for the 1960 Olympics. Similarly constructed in art deco style it also has a touch of classical Roman about it through the many statues that encircle it. Now in use as the National Rugby Stadium and is also the home of Serie C. A.S.Cisco