How Was Marostica Built

The Scaligeri walls of 1372-87 enclose the lower town in a rough rectangle and then do something less common: two arms climb the hillside to enclose the upper castle as well, so the whole hill is inside the defences.

The Castello Inferiore sits on the main square, its base forming one side of the chessboard. It is a compact brick keep with a crenellated tower, now housing the town's museum and the Partita a Scacchi costumes.

The Castello Superiore on the Pausolino summit is largely ruined -- walls, towers and the shell of the keep -- and is the better of the two to visit, for the position rather than the building.

The walls are brick over stone footings with Ghibelline swallowtail merlons, the Veronese signature. Their survival is a consequence of Marostica never mattering enough militarily to be worth demolishing or modernising.