A few steps from our bed and breakfast, immediately after the Parco del Prato, there is another precious corner, a pleasant and striking discovery for tourists who visit our small town: the sixteenth-century Medici fortress, enchanting stronghold located in the heart of the historic center of Arezzo.

Like any other building in charge of the defense of the city, even our fortress has suffered damage and destruction over time. The first trace of Arezzo fortress dates back to 1319, when under the name of cassero di San Donato, a fortification was erected around the perimeter of the city and then partially destroyed during the riots against the bishop Guido Tarlati.

Rebuilt around 1343 it remained intact until 1384 when the French troops attempted to demolish it succeeding in 1398; the fortress had to wait for the intervention of the Florentines at the head of the city to be rebuilt and to be able to resist the attacks of Arezzo in 1502.

The now visible military construction of a pentagonal shape partly reflects the old Florentine project (although the shape of the era was trapezoidal) since Cosimo dei Medici entrusted its construction to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Nanni Hungarian between 1538 and 1560, who respected the designs of Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo previous designers.

In particular, the remains of the Old Relief Bridge and the Church on the eastern side and the signs of the nineteenth-century French explosions remained.

In the mid-nineteenth century it was purchased by the Fossombroni family who left it to the Municipality of Arezzo in 1893; thus began the maintenance work thanks to which it was possible to find a part of the fortress of the fourteenth century in one of the bastions that, together with the network of tunnels, hidden halls, wells and air intakes are the sign of a very military type avant-garde for the time.

Suggestive place of public walk the Medicea Fortress can be visited again in 2012 at the conclusion of a complete restoration currently underway …. once again it will amaze its visitors with its mighty structure and the magnificent panorama that can be enjoyed from it.