Opening times: always open
The place can be reached by car
The Malatestian Castle of Gatteo was built during the XIII century, probably on the site of a preexistent Roman camp, and it underwent several modifications throughout the centuries.
It has an almost square area, a tower and five bulwarks, it is surrounded by a wide moat, originally filled with water, which can be crossed thanks to what used to be a drawbridge.
On the eastern side of the walls stands the entrance to the castle, that’s to say a round arch surmounted by a square tower, and the donjon, where it is still possible to see the grooves where the joists that worked the drawbridge ran. On top of the donjon there is the seventeenth-century civic tower.
During the second half of the eighteenth century the walls, except for the eastern side that stills has the remains of the brackets and stonework, were lowered and the moat consequently filled with earth, while the only means of access to the building, the drawbridge, was replaced with a stone bridge.
The Castle has been recently restored: the works ended in 2003 and now it is possible to have a walk on the walls.
In August the court of the castle becomes the set for the traditional festival dedicated to San Lorenzo, Gatteo’s Patron Saint.
Entrance: free
The court of the castle is accessible to people with reduced mobility