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The Tower of Winds, also known as the Tower of the Winds, forms part of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
History[]
An anemoscope, with a pointer attached to a wind vane outside that moved as the winds moved, was built by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century as part of an astronomical observatory to help in working out a new calendar and its details because the Council of Trent had concluded that something was wrong the old one, as its vernal equinox kept ocurring earlier and earlier in the year, thus giving the building its name as the Tower of the Winds.[1]
In 1933, archaeologist Indiana Jones and his companion Alecia Dunstin visited Rome, Italy during their investigation of the Voynich Manuscript and told a blue and yellow uniformed Swiss guard that they were going to see Professor Charles Rufus Morey, so the guard told them that Morey was at the Vatican Secret Archive within the Tower of Winds but they needed permission from the prefect to enter. Dunstin signaled the irony of Morey being at the Archives despite those being "Secret", so the guard let them in and the pair met the academic at the Meridian Room beneath a huge painting of the Sea of Gaililee storm, who proceeded to help them with the manuscript to realize that they should go to Libya if they wanted to find the Philosopher's Stone and Alecia's brother Alistair first before Leonardo Sarducci.[1]
At conservator Father Orlando Ricci's behest, Jones (disguised as the American priest "Father Gallagher") broke into his office at the Tower of Winds on October 23, 1937 with the help of Ricci's parrot Pio after it got locked down under Father Cesare Ventura's orders due to Ricci being suspected of subversive activity and retrieved the key for the nearby Villa Pia. He also used Ricci's office window to get over the Blackshirts cordon of the Vatican Gardens to access the villa.[2]
Four years later, on a return but no less clandestine visit to the Holy See, Jones used the tower to make his escape from Prime Minister Benito Mussolini's men after accessing information in the secret archive.[3]
Behind the scenes[]
The Tower of Winds is also the Gregorian Tower, a name Indiana Jones sources don't use.
The tower appears as part of the Vatican City architecture in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.[4] However, it was not identified until it became a playable space in the DLC story expansion "The Order of Giants".[2]
Appearances[]
- Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai
