War of the Castle of Love

The number of attendees from out of town was reckoned at 1,200 gentlemen with their wives, with 360 of these men coming from Venice and the rest from Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Friuli, Feltre and Belluno.

The centrepiece, however, was the wooden "castle of love" constructed outside the Porta San Tomaso in a place called La Spineta, corresponding to the neighbourhood of Selvana today.

This was defended by ladies and damsels against the assaults of the young men of Treviso, Padua and Venice, who threw flowers, pastries and spices, respectively, at the battlements.

[4] Rolandino describes the weapons of this pageant as follows: and the arms and engines wherewith men fought against it were apples and dates and muscat-nuts [nutmeg], tarts and pears and quinces, roses and lilies and violets, and vases of balsam or ambergris or rosewater, amber, camphor, cardamums, cinnamon, cloves, pomegranates, and all manner of flowers or spices that are fragrant to smell and fair to see.

According to the Cronaca Altinate, Doge Pietro Ziani strove to maintain peace through diplomacy so that Venice could concentrate on its recent acquisitions in Greece.

In preparation for the Paduan assault, they filled its base with earth, dug a ditch around it and created a covering for it with ropes taken from ships in order to protect it from the projectiles of siege engines.

Taking advantage of high tide on 22 October, the defenders sortied, supported by a small fleet,[9] sacked the Paduan camp and took at least 400 prisoners.

[10] Following the intervention of Patriarch Wolfger of Aquileia, separate peace treaties for Padua and Treviso were signed on 9 April 1216 at San Giorgio in Alga in Venice.

Wolfger's influence stemmed in part from his position as the superior of the suffragan bishops of Treviso and Padua, but he may also have received a papal commission from Innocent III when he attended the Fourth Lateran Council in November 1215.

[12] According to the treaties, "on the occasion of the games of Treviso, the devil instigating, no small war between Venetians and Paduans arose" (instigante diabolo, occasione ludi Tarvisii, inter Venetos et Paduanos werra non modica fuisset suborta).