page_title: Castle of the Pico
section_title: Keep
hierarchical_section_title: Castle of the Pico / Description / Keep
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Secondo fatto seguito l'istesso giorno cominciando dalle ore 8 e 1/2 della mattina fino alle. .doppo pranso, dove li tedeschi fecero prigionieri li cisalpini e vari mirandolesi, e li mantovani diedero il sacco alle miliori case della Mirandola. G.° B.° Menabue dipinse.
context_page_description: The Castle of the Pico is a castle in the city center of Mirandola, in the province of Modena, Italy.
  Famous in Europe as a legendary impregnable fortress, it belonged to the House of Pico della Mirandola, who ruled over the city for four centuries and who enriched it in the Renaissance period with important pieces of art.
  The castle, that dominates the long Costituente square and Circonvallazione boulevard, was restored in 2006 after many years of neglect, but was then severely damaged by the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes, which made it unusable again.
context_section_description: The keep, known as the Torrione, was an impressive tower designed by Giovanni Marco Canozi from Lendinara (son of Lorenzo Canozi) and was built in 1499-1500 during Giovanni Francesco II Pico.
  The tower, which had walls 18 feet thick and was 48 meters high, was considered impregnable because it was completely detached and isolated from the castle: it could only be accessed through a drawbridge located on the third floor.
  On the night of June 11, 1714, during a thunderstorm that broke out around 1:30, lightning struck the roof of the tower, causing the powder magazine in which 270 barrels of gunpowder were kept to deflate. The shock wave caused very serious damage throughout the city and marked the beginning of the decline of Mirandola. The precious state archives of the Duchy of Mirandola were almost lost: a legend says that the inhabitants of Mirandola reused for months the ancient papers of the Pico family to wrap food.
  In 1783, Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena ordered the further demolition of the Ducal Palace of Mirandola, the lowering of the starry walls of the city and the burying of the moats. Shortly afterwards all the other towers were demolished (except the Clock Tower in the main square) and some fortifications outside the walls. Other demolitions of the city walls took place during the Napoleonic era, while the definitive disappearance of all fortifications (walls and ramparts) dates back to the period from 1876 to 1896 as a decision of the municipal administration to combat unemployment: the land freed, the medieval historical finds found and the resulting material were all sold.
caption: The main square of Mirandola 1799: the fortifications of the castle and the clock tower are still visible on the left.
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