Medieval Experience

Visit to Marostica Castle

Marostica became “Scaligera” following the conquest of Vicenza by Cangrande della Scala in 1311. The Scaliger domain spans almost the entire fourteenth century and ends in 1387. Border outpost of the Scaligeri fighting against the Paduans , Marostica was involved in the Paduan war -scaligera of 1312-1314, during which the village of Marostica, which arose and developed to the east of the current walled city, around the parish church of Santa Maria, was attacked and sacked by the Paduans (but the strong castle on the Pauso resisted).

Subsequently, in 1338, Marostica, even if for a few months, fell under the dominion of Sicco da Caldonazzo, but then returned to firm Scaliger hands. These events certainly prompted the Scaligeri to think of the city’s fortifications in new terms and during the fourteenth century they fortified it, giving way to the construction of the walled city, with the two Castles, the Lower and the Upper.

The lower castle is presented in its voluminous structure as a quadrangular crenellated enclosure with a high keep. It was largely built using local sandstone and limestone, with little use of terracotta bricks (a very expensive material). There are two drawbridges, over the moat, to the north and south of the respective facades. Above the south entrance there was a recently reconstructed barte.

Of particular interest are the two internal loggias, the one on the ground floor supported by sturdy terracotta pillars, and the upper one. Specifically, the Lower Castle was increasingly transformed from a fortress into a public palace, that of the podestà or rector who resided there in the Venetian age, administering civil justice and supervising the good governance of the community. The Council of Thirty, the municipal council of the Venetian age, met in the Lower Castle. It also housed the prisons from the Venetian era until the first decades of the twentieth century.