The Papito tower, also known as the Boccamazza tower, is one of the few Roman buildings dating back to the medieval period that has survived in its entirety. It should not be confused with the Argentina tower, whose remains are preserved in via del Sudario in the courtyard of the palace of bishop Johannes Burckardt, originally from Strasbourg (the ancient Argentoratum ).
The origin of the term Papito instead could derive from the nickname of the antipope Anacletus II (1132-1138), defined as "Papetto" due to his young age and short stature, or, more likely, from the Papareschi family , also called de Papa , to which fragmentary information attributes its construction in the 14th century.
The property later passed to the Foschi de Judeis , of Jewish origin, and then to the Boccamazza who handed it over, between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, to the Cesarini. In the New Map of Rome from the mid-eighteenth century, drawn up by Giambattista Nolli, the tower is closed on two sides by other buildings, which will be destroyed in modern times due to the widening of Via delle Botteghe Oscure, completely isolating it. At the base, in via di S. Nicola de' Cesarini, Antonio Muñoz, director of the X Division of the Governorate, had the small portico built from scratch, in which the columns from a demolished building in the surrounding area were reused.
The tower, with a quadrangular plan, has a height of 19.25 m at its highest point. It has a wall facing in second choice bricks and a roof covered with Roman tiles and tiles.
In the portico there are currently four pilaster capitals belonging to the façade of the church of S. Nicola de' Cesarini and the architrave of the portal of Palazzo Aquari, demolished between 1927 and 1929.