Siena ordered this pentagon-shaped fortress built in 1361, absorbing an older tower into its walls, as it tightened its grip on Montalcino during the long contest with Florence for control of southern Tuscany. It became the very last stronghold of the Sienese republic: after Florence finally crushed Siena in 1555, a group of exiled Sienese held out inside these walls for four more years before surrendering. Today the ramparts are open for walking, the views stretch over the vine rows that produce Brunello, and a wine bar run by the local Consorzio inside the fortress pours the region's reds by the glass in the shadow of the walls that once held out against an empire.
The fortress documents Siena’s defensive reinforcement of Montalcino. The 1559 capitulation belongs to the wider history of Montalcino and the Sienese Republic in exile, rather than a claim that the fortress alone was the republic’s final refuge.
