THE TERRITORY
THE WALLS
Here are the Carraresi Walls, with the warm colors they take and reflect the different shades of light, in the background the blue of the sky and the intense green of the grass of the ancient wall. The city appears as enclosed in a bezel, we could almost define it as a "Middle Ages shell". The city walls give the city an irregular pentagon shape; it is about 2 km long and surrounded by a wide ramp with a width from 20m to 45m. The eastern and western parts of the walls are characterized by the use of bricks and date back to the 13th century, the period of the Municipality of Padua. The sections to the north and south, on the other hand, are made with composite material (several alternating layers of trachyte from the Euganean Hills, bricks and limestone flakes). The battlements are of the Guelph type and the slits are positioned at different heights to hit different types of targets. The 24 towers have a hexagonal plan, they are about 17 / 19m high and about 50 m apart, favoring a better observation of the perimeter of the city.
CASTEL SAN ZENO
CASTEL S. ZENO
The construction of the keep of Castel S. Zeno (1242), about 38 m high, is attributed to the medieval period and to Ezzelino da Romano, following a rise at a later date. It represents the oldest section of the walls and it is advisable to climb the tower for a dip in the past and to enjoy a breathtaking view of Montagnana. Going up the stairs you can see the internal structure of the building, once divided by seven wooden floors which were accessed through trapdoors on ladders.
The castle has undergone several construction phases and today we can recognize the Venetian part (XVIII century) which is characterized by two rooms currently used for conferences and the medieval area which includes the library and the museum. Inside, a courtyard overlooked by a covered wooden gallery, restored using mainly original material.
The civic museum "A. Giacomelli" is divided into the archaeological section up to the Roman era, the medieval part and the musical part in the Martinelli room and Pertile named after the two famous Montagnano tenors.
THE FORTRESS
The "Rocca degli Alberi" is a military fortress that was intended to defend one of the entrances to the city. Once it was entirely surrounded by ditches, and even the inner section of the gardens and Piazza Martiri della Libertà was an extended pit that further isolated the fortress, as if it were on an islet. The architect was Franceschino De Schici and the construction (which took place between 1360 and 1362) was commissioned by the Lord of Padua Francesco I Da Carrara. In the entrance hall you can see the loopholes, the structures that once supported the drawbridges and the holes that supported the wooden balconies. The stone coats of arms positioned on the facade of the entrance hall are noteworthy, symbols of the Municipality of Padua (the cross) and of the Da Carrara family (the cart and the crest with the horned Moor).
THE SQUARE
Majestic, luminous, the true heart of the city, the square, called Listòn in Veneto, with its frieze equal to that of Piazza S. Marco, testifies to the Venetian presence in Montagnana that changed its destination from a border military outpost to an active center of commerce. . Originally it was in brick and from the second half of the '700 it has the current pavement. The orientation of the Cathedral is particularly happy, oblique to the axis of the square, which allows the façade and side to be seen at a glance.