The current walls, which represent one of the most distinguished and best preserved examples of medieval military architecture in Europe, except the complex of Castel San Zeno and the parts of the walls to the east and west that are older, date back to the middle of the 14th century, when the Carraresi, lords of Padua, wanted to enlarge and strengthen this essential frontier fort of the Paduan state against the Verona of the Scaligeri, which dominated the nearby Legnago.

The urban space intramoenia was expanded on that occasion, and the new enclosure was built with superimposed layers of bricks and stones (trachyte transported by water from the nearby Euganean hills).

The warehouses (canipe) were located inside the barrel-vaults that support the patrol path, in order to keep the goods produced in the countryside (we can still see the grooves to attach the wooden reinforcements).

In the towers, with several floors and covered by a sloping roof hidden under the pitch equipped with siege engines, there were other warehouses and quarters for soldiers placed as a garrison of the fortress in times of war emergency.

All around the Montagnana area there were impassable swamps or floodable plains in case of war, so that the walled city was the key to the Paduan frontier to the west.

The military structure was also encircled by four advanced perimeter fortifications (the bastions), now disappeared, and the two fortresses placed to defend the two gates were surrounded by a moat on the city side as well.

Access to the city was controlled by the fortified gates of the castle of San Zeno (to the east, towards Padua) and the Rocca degli Alberi (to the west, towards the Veronese area).

[5] The Rocca degli Alberi, which stands imposing and scenic on the valley from the west, was built by the Carraresi family in the biennium 1360-62 with exclusively military function.

Today’s construction (except for the Venetian room and the Austrian superstructures) dates back to the 13th century, when Ezzelino III da Romano, after having set it on fire in 1242, wanted to fortify Montagnana better.