Municipal Tower
The first in the center is the municipal tower , built between the end of the thirteenth century or the early fourteenth century, previously, it had been used on the upper floors as a residence for the city authorities and on the ground floor as a meeting room, instead at the top we could find, and we still find a large bell and a clock.
Probably in 1300, the tower was inhabited and bought by the Cepolla family, who for some years rented it to the Municipality, in which in 1333 they transferred the seat of the Municipal Council and of the Capitulum Consuls who, later, went to buy it.
The municipal tower looks like this, after a restoration that took place in 1934, previously all the historical stratifications that covered its original sobriety were still preserved. Right in front of the entrance, on the east side, you could find a seventeenth-century loggia and, under it, a sixteenth-century portal with a slate architrave with an interesting inscription "Mens omnibus una", a phrase that underlines the cohesion that was to characterize the public administration of Albenga. The mullioned windows and mullioned windows, which have been restored, are not contemporary with each other but all attributable to the Romanesque and Gothic periods.
On the ground floor of the tower is preserved, closed by a cross vault, a fresco depicting a rose window with the monogram of Christ , the symbol of San Bernardino da Siena. Now the tower is home to the Information Office and the Civic Museum, set up inside the beautiful municipal loggia.
Town Hall Tower
The second is the Town Hall tower , to be precise Torre Malasemenza , from the name of the family that probably had it built in the 13th century or Zaccaria Cepollini tower, from the name of the 17th century owner. This building is 31 meters high and was incorporated into the Town Hall in 1831, which was built on the remains of older buildings, and was restored in 1938 taking into account the lighting needs of the municipal offices.
It is assumed that, at the base of this tower, there were the city prisons in 1586, since it was called "the corner of the sedans", a place where criminals were exposed in the public square.
Bell tower
The third is the bell tower of the Cathedral of San Michele , compared to the other two, it is more recent and is an excellent example of late Gothic architecture in Liguria. Its base dates back to the first Romanesque bell tower, unlike the rest which was rebuilt in 1391 with brick material. Looking at its structure we can immediately realize its elegance, given by the traditional alternation of mullioned windows and three-mullioned windows and by the division of the internal floors, deducible from the small frames in arches that run horizontally part of the surface.
The spire, covered in white and green majolica tiles, was rebuilt in 1900 keeping the previous one as a model, which was damaged by lightning.