These mini castles were built all over the city.
The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is that the richest families used them for offensive/defensive purposes during the period of the Investiture Controversy.
Only a few survive to the current day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1296207418306952
One hypothesis, the city built the towers in hopes of one day being the locale for an Assassin’s Creed game, thus improving tourism.