Fortezza Firmafede

The Fortezza Firmafede, also called La Cittadella or the Fortezza di Sarzana, is a military fortification in Sarzana, in the Province of La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. Florentine forces under Lorenzo de' Medici destroyed an earlier fortress on the site in 1487 and rebuilt it between 1487 and 1492 under Florentine military architects including Giuliano da Sangallo, Francesco di Giovanni and Luca del Caprina, giving it a round central tower of a kind later superseded by angled bastions. The fortress served as a police barracks from 1815 and then as a prison until the late 1970s, restoration began in 1985, and it is now owned by the Ministry of Culture and used as a venue for cultural events and exhibitions, its quadrilateral main building and central keep still surrounded by a moat and defensive walls.