The tower stands at the corner of Via Sant'Andrea and Via delle Chiavi D’Oro. Built of stone and brick, the Guinigi tower is 45 metres high and stands out from all the buildings of the old part of the town because of the trees that grow on its top. Among all the medieval towers belonging to private families, this is the only one that has not been reduced in height or destroyed in the sixteenth century.

The houses of the powerful Guinigi family started to rise as early as the fourteenth century, forming a complex that covered both sides of the Guinigi street. The palaces were built in the late fourteenth century: they are the latest and most sumptuous versions of the Romanesque-Gothic houses of Lucca.

However, the original plan has been altered, as three of the four towers next to the crossroads of Via Sant'Andrea and via Guinigi were destroyed.

On top of the tower there is a garden, which consists of a walled box filled with earth, in which seven oak trees were planted. It is not exactly known when the garden was created, but in an image stored in the Chronicles of Giovanni Sercambi (15th century), you can see that among the many towers of Lucca there was one crowned with trees. It is assumed therefore that the plant of the Guinigi Tower is very old, even if the oaks present today were replanted in time.

The tower has become, as the city walls, a distinctive symbol of the city of Lucca.