Mastio sommitale del Castello Carrarese

The keep we can see today was built in 1340; it is 21 m high and square in shape, measuring 5.75 m on each side. It stands on the foundations of a pentagonal tower which were uncovered during an excavation in the early 1990s: the whole complex was carefully restored between 1994 and 2001. It was the base of a tower built around 1220 by Marquis Azzo VII of Este. Access was via the first floor on the north side and involved climbing a ladder. This pentagonal tower which had walls 2.55 m thick and which stood much higher than the current tower, was probably the only tower spared in the subsequent devastating siege of the town by Ezzelino III da Romano in 1249.