I Had No Idea What It Was
August 22, 2025
Source: Reddit
The first time I looked up in an old Italian alley and saw those metal rods sticking out of a building, I thought it was just leftover scaffolding. Or maybe some district’s idea of art. To me, their presence seemed wayward, but I later discovered they were actually anchor bolts, crucial for structural stability.
It isn’t. They’re ‘anchor bolts’ and they’ve been helping hold buildings up for hundreds of years.
You’ll notice anchor bolts on all kinds of older Italian buildings – I was seeing similar bolts in Florence, Bologna, Rome. Some look like simple rods. Some end in decorative stars or plant shapes. Regardless, they all have a purpose, and the bolts actually do work.
These Bolts Are Doing Actual Heavy Lifting (Literally)
Older buildings in Italy are almost always made of stone and brick, without any steel framework or reinforced concrete. Over time, they shift. Walls lean. Cracks form. And earthquakes exacerbate everything.
Builders ran steel rods from one exterior wall to the other, tightening them with bolts. They anchor tension pulling the walls inward, helping prevent a whole structure from falling apart. A corset for buildings. Uncomfortable? Sure. Effective? Definitely.
A Little Bit of Style To Go With Structural Integrity
You would think that anchor plates would be 100% functional. But not in Italy; they’re stylish.
There’s star-shaped plates, scrolls, crosses. Some are geometric, and some muddle into the facade. I saw one building where the bolts zig-zagged perfectly across a long crack in the wall. It could have been happenstance, it could have been planned. It looked great either way.
Earthquake Damage Mitigation
Italy – earthquakes happen. There are regions and cities that get hit harder than others, but regardless of the severity of the earthquake, when they’re serious enough, anchor bolts are in the mix of a repair to a cracked wall or when keeping old buildings together.
Sometimes they’re preventative and other times a last-ditch attempt to save the structure that’s already starting to collapse. But they work just the same.
One You See Them, You Won’t Unsee Them
Once I saw them on one building, I noticed them on every building. Iron rods. Rusting bolts. Decorative stars. I swear every narrow alley had at least one emblem of the structure of a wall being held together by steel rods.
They’re quiet, but once you see them, they’re part of a facade’s charm: laugh-lines on an older person’s face – evidence of age and character.
Anchor Bolts: Quiet Workhorses of Italian Architecture
Anchor bolts in older Italy buildings are quietly, seriously impressive. They’re simple, clever and have undoubtedly saved thousands of historic buildings from full structural collapse.
The next time you are in Italy, look up. Look for the bolts, and take a picture. They are there holding hundreds of years of history in place – without applause, or a spotlight – quietly doing their job.