The tower of Castle San Martino della Vaneza can be seen from afar, in its setting of tall trees next to the flow of the Bacchiglione, at Cervarese Santa Croce. This was the location of a travel route used since ancient times and the site of a port for loading Montemerlo paving stone, destined for Venice, and for loading timber from the Carpaneda forest. The tower dates back as far as the 11th century, while a proper castle was added in 1312. The signoria awarded the castle to Nicolo da Carrara, prior to his rebellion against the family, after his group of courageous men halted the Scaligeri at the Santa Giustina garden lands. The castle offered a strategically important western defence. Nicolo was not to en}oy his reward: in 1327, when he allied himself with Cangrande della Scala and led a band against the Marsilio da Carrara, the entire property was confiscated. Between 1360 and 1388 the Carraresi enlarged the castle by adding a pair of two-storey structures and rebuilding the upper part of the tower, forming a total of six habitable floors plus the ground floor. With the fall of the signoria the castle passed to the Serenissima, and in 1489 it was purchased by the Venetian noble Gabriele Vendramin. In the 19th century it belonged to the state. In 1934 the castle returned to the Papafava branch of the Carraresi family, who donated it in 1970 to a consortium for the development of the Euganei Hills.
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