Cittadella City Walls Historical Timeline

Origins

Padua built the walls with the town from 1220, as a military answer to Treviso's Castelfranco 15 km away. Wall and settlement were designed together as one object.

Turning points

Ezzelino III da Romano seized the town and used the Torre di Malta at Porta Padova as a prison notorious enough for Dante to name it in the Paradiso.

Influential people

The town passed to the Carraresi and then to Venice in 1405.

Cultural evolution

Under Venice the walls became militarily irrelevant and were left alone -- never modernised for gunpowder, never quarried for stone, never demolished to let the town grow. That neglect preserved them.

Present-day significance

A long restoration reopened the complete rampart walkway in 2013.