Outer Loop Route
The historic center of Giglio Castello offers a rare loop route outside the walls, allowing visitors to appreciate the evolution from the 12th to the 16th century. Medieval quadrangular towers can be distinguished from Renaissance semicircular ones, created to resist cannons, as well as the striking bell tower and the mighty fortress that dominates the town.
The historic center of Giglio Castello offers the rare opportunity for a loop trail outside the wall circuit that allows the visitor to appreciate the structure of a medieval castle and its later modifications without any adjoining buildings, as is the case in Paganico, for example.
The route begins with the present access to the castle from the southeast. This was originally an antiporta, that is, a reinforced gate to allow better defense. Continuing counterclockwise, the road that follows the walls allows one to admire the entire circuit of the walls built in the last centuries of the Middle Ages (14th-15th) and renovated centuries later, including after the siege of the mid-16th century. The difference is clearly visible in the shape of the towers. Some, the medieval ones, are quadrangular, while the more recent ones are semicircular. The difference is due to the necessity of having to defend against siege cannons that imposed these new solutions along with the widespread use of scarp walls.
Along the way it is possible to see the bell tower of the church that stands inside the castle and instead dates back to the first documented phase of thesettlement, datable to the middle of the 12th century. Continuing northward and moving to the northeast slope, the fortress, that is, the most fortified part and located higher up, is clearly visible. It was certainly present both in the first phase of the castle and in its 14th-15th century extension.
