The story of the Forte Michelangelo (Fortress of Michelangelo) of Civitavecchia starts in the 1500's, when Julius II decided to equip the city of a fortress to protect it from the threat of pirates.
He put in charge Bramante, and then his students Giuliano Leno and Antonio da Sangallo.
The keep, however, was entrusted to the great Michelangelo.
The fortress was founded over a large Roman building of the imperial era.
Fort Michelangelo is among the greatest of his era and has the shape of a quadrilateral, with four towers and an octagonal Keep.
Everything inside ran around the moat and the walls are lined with travertine and crowned by parapets with openings for cannons and muskets.
The tower Maschio could be completely isolated from the rest of the fort so was the last defence.
Above the old entrance, between the Keep and the west tower, one can still see the bronze pulley of the drawbridge on the doorposts of which is carved the order: "LEAVE YOUR WEAPONS".
In the tower of San Sebastiano is housed an underground corridor as a secret exit from the fortress to the grounds.
In the fort there is a chapel dedicated to the patron saint Santa Fermina built on a Roman environment that according to tradition was inhabited by the same saint.
Santa Fermina was in fact a martyr who tried to escape the persecution of the emperor Diocletian and who for her story is the patron saint of sailors.
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