Fortress

In this case for castle we want to refer to a medieval village surrounded by a wall, towers and fortified gates. The fortress, instead, was only a fortified building exclusively meant for military purposes, to watch over the inside and the outside of the castle. At present, two ancient main gates are still left: Porta Entogge at west (renamed Porta Trento) and Porta Fiastra (renamed Porta Piave). The gates have lost their military characteristics which, neverthless, are still legible and are an essay of the two main entrance system of the castle.

The Castle of Urbisaglia was built at the north-western side of the destroyed Roman city of Urbs Salvia.

The ruins of the Roman town were taken into the space of both the castle and the fortress. The fortress was built at the beginning of the fifteenth century by Tolentino on the site of a pre-existing medieval Girone (of which only the base of the main tower is left today) and occupying also the site of what was very likely to be the Arce (Arx or fortress) of the Roman town of Urbisaglia.

	The Mastio and its ruins	Built by Lombardian masters, the fortress has a trapezoidal plan with the south-western side stretching further than the north-western one. At each of the four corners rise the round escarped keeps. An entrance tower, placed on the north-western side was guarded by the west keep and by the highest tower placed under lee of a curtain.
	The Entrance Tower
	The Western Tower
	Southern Tower
	The Eastern Tower
	The Northern Tower
	The fortress armaments

Of the previous fortification the fortress keeps the thirteenth-century highest tower (named Mastio) even if this was restored along the centuries. The Mastio was probably built over the ruins of a watch tower, much more higher than the present. It must have been cut on the top in a later time following the new architectural models which aimed to lower the various fortified buildings. Other ruins of the original castle are now left inside the fortress where they take a wide part of the internal court.

The Urbisaglia castle walls were joined to the keeps of the fortress respectively at west and south. The south-western side of the fortress formed, therefore, an extension of the castle wall of Urbisaglia.

At the base of the highest tower there is a cistern for the gathering of rain water to ensure the water supply to the fortress even in case of siege.

(abstract from Maurizio Mauro, La Rocca di Urbisaglia, Adriapress Ravenna)

Regione Marche

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