The Medici fortress crowns Cortona at the highest point of the town, about a 15-minute walk uphill from Piazza della Repubblica. The thick stone walls and four corner bastions are typical of mid-16th-century Italian military architecture, designed in the era when star-shaped bastions had replaced medieval keeps.
The interior is now an exhibition space with rotating contemporary art shows. The views from the ramparts over the Val di Chiana and across to Lake Trasimeno are the principal reason to come up here, especially at sunset.