(02-08-2017, 02:04 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The difficulty is, as JKP shows, that these elements were relatively popular in 15thC Europe. I know of several churches around here with a globular decoration in the spire, and it is true that a large amount of towers - especially the spires - have been lost or rebuilt in a different style. These circumstances make the search for similar buildings very difficult.
This is certainly true, yet the parallels we proposed are good but could be better. Searching for better parallels still makes sense.
The St.Goffredo tower in Milan posted by JKP has the typical conic top that appears in most medieval churches in Lombardy. Still it is not round (even if octagonal is a good approximation) and it doesn't have the peculiar feature highlighted by Wladimir.
(02-08-2017, 02:04 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Based on the similarity alone I'd still say this tower is a good candidate. However, it appears to be standing in the middle of the old town while the VM tower is near or even part of what looks like a fortified wall...
I agree! This is a major difference and it's very likely to be relevant. I think the author of the illustration was familiar with walls with round towers and conical roofs. He manages to throw in a number of interesting details. I think here one can see three semi-circular towers, an arched city-gate or square tower and (at the bottom) a building with an angular turret (Photos top to bottom: Glorenza/Glurns, Berwick, the Alcazar - I am not sure they are potentially relevant, just to give an idea of what I see in the illustration. I am sure better examples can be found)