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Arco di Castruccio, Montopoli - Pisa in Tuscany

At the foot of the fortress, the imposing Arch of Castruccio is what remains of the medieval city walls. The arch is built of stone ashlars in its lower part and of brickwork at the top. All the gates in the fortifications had outer gates and were controlled by guard towers. The latest work was carried out on the tower in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was decided that the area around the tower, which had become the symbol of Montopoli, would be transformed into a memorial park (Parco della Rimembranza) with trees and brick benches. The oldest part of present-day Montopoli has retained the appearance of a typical medieval fortified village, even if recent transformations have cancelled many signs of its history.

In its original appearance the castle must have consisted of an imposing fortress perching on a hilltop, and of city walls with towers and gates which were lengthened over the centuries following the expansion of the town along the main road in the Middle Ages. Little was known of the fortress, which constituted the keep of the medieval fortification, until recent excavations brought to light a portion of the fortification wall built of stone ashlars and bricks and a large rectangular rainwater cistern. The excavation also proved that the hill on which the fortress stood had been in use throughout the centuries that followed the Middle Ages, starting in the grand-ducal period, when an imposing brickwork tower was erected there that was similar in structure to the San Matteo Tower located in the lower part of the village. The fortress tower, which housed a glass works after losing its military character, was destroyed in 1944 by the German army in retreat.

The castle area was then used in the 17th century as a burial place. The terrible plague of 1631 took such a heavy toll of lives that, in all probability, the burial ground at the back of the Church of San Sebastiano was not large enough to inter them all. The excavation brought to light many corpses in individual or common graves, for the most part with no funerary equipment.

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