# External view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Italian]() - Date: 1251-1300 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary The Scaliger castle at Sirmione on Lake Garda is a rare example of medieval port fortification, which was used by the Scaliger fleet. The building of this complex started in 1277 by Mastino della Scala. It presents the typical Ghibelline swallowtail merlons and the curtain-walls \(with three corner towers\) in pebbles alternating with two horizontal bands of brick courses. The walls on the inside were finished with plaster with graffiti, simulating blocks of stone. The castle stands at a strategic place at the entrance to the peninsula. It is surrounded by a moat and it can only be entered by two drawbridges. The castle was established mainly as a protection against enemies, but also against the locals. The late-thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century stone-built Scaliger castle is a variant of the keep and curtain wall design. Like so many of the outlying strategic fortresses built by the Scaligeri and their rivals, it was intended more for purely military purposes than for residence. An interesting feature is the close relationship between its keep and the tradition of the fortified town tower. The keep is unusually slim and extremely high in relation to the surrounding curtain walls, from which it is carefully isolated. Its main entrance, originally reached by a wooden ladder, is 6 meters above the ground, and its interior consists of a series of barrel-vaulted, cross-vaulted, and wooden-ceilinged chambers. Apart from the walls that enclose the township, the castle boasts a trapezoidal fortified harbour. The principal near-rectangle of walls and towers, surrounding the keep and courtyard, is separated by both town and harbour by a moat. At Sirmione, the defensive complexity results in a massing of successive walls and towers that is outstanding in its visual quality. ## Related artworks - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Apse of a basilica]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Basilica di Sant'Antonio: Chiostro del Noviziato]() - [Basilica Santi Nereo e Achilleo]() - [Ca' Foscari: Façade]() - [Chamber of the millers]() - [Chiesa dell'Incoronata: Interior of the dome]() - [Cloister gallery]() - [Detail of the façade]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()