Famous in Europe as a legendary impregnable fortress,[2] it belonged to the House of Pico della Mirandola, who ruled over the city for four centuries (1311-1711) and who enriched it in the Renaissance period with important pieces of art.

The castle, that dominates the long Costituente square and Circonvallazione boulevard (built in place of the ancient walls, demolished during the 19th century), was restored in 2006 after many years of neglect, but was then severely damaged by the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes, which made it unusable again.

[4] The castle was located in a strategic position along the Imperial Romea route (which connected Germany to Rome),[5] and it was later expanded to form a large quadrilateral surrounded by a moat.

[7] At the beginning of the 20th century, around the 1930s,[8] the city council attempted to rebuild the ancient keep of the castle (destroyed by fire in 1714), creating a massive neo-Gothic tower overlooking on the main square.

After years of absolute neglect and degradation, the castle was restored and reopened to the public in 2006, with a new Civic Museum and a cultural center, including an auditorium and other exhibition spaces.

Due to the serious damage suffered after the 2012 Emilia earthquake (estimated at about 10 million euros[10][11] only for the municipal property,[12] the castle has become unpracticable and closed to tourists, despite the urgent security works.

On the western part the building there are the remains of the sixteenth-century "bastion of the castle", reinforced in 1576 by Fulvia da Correggio[19] and connected to the mighty walls with a starry plan with 8 points that defended the city.

The central body of the castle is made up of the magnificent "Galleria Nuova" (the New Gallery) whose northern façade was erected by the duke Alessandro II Pico della Mirandola in 1668.

The New Gallery, which dominates from above the Circonvallazione boulevard, consists of an elegant and noble loggia, closed at the sides by two buildings, profiled in ashlar and with large and harmonious serlian windows tripartite.

In 1783, Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena ordered the further demolition of the Ducal Palace of Mirandola, the lowering of the starry walls of the city and the burying of the moats.

[28] In 1789 Count Ottavio Greco Corbelli asked and obtained from Duke Ercole III d'Este to set up a modern theatre inside the castle of Mirandola, where the militias of the Duchy of Modena were housed at the time.

However, the local chronicles record an extraordinary film projection made on October 31, 1896 (the first in Italy ever, just a year after the first experiments of the Lumiere brothers) by the inventor-photographer from Mirandola Italo Pacchioni (who was born inside the castle in 1872), considered a pioneer of Italian cinema.