The Second of the three Towers

San Marino has three Towers: the Guaita, the Cesta and the Montale.
The Cesta, connected to the First Tower by "the Witches’ Pass", is the one which used to house the Guards Division and a few prison cells.

Curiosity

As the etymology of the word "Cesta" suggests, the fortification was used as a lookout post as early as Roman times and its presence is mentioned, with the same name, in a document dated 1253.

The “Cesta” today

With the loss of its strategic importance in the seventeenth century, the fort fell into disuse before undergoing major restoral work in the first half of the twentieth century that brought it back to its pristine state.
From 1956 to the present day, the Tower has housed the Museum of Ancient Weapons with about 700 examples of different types of weapon dating from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century.

Curiosity

The exhibition circuit extends over four rooms and traces the evolution of "cold weapons" and "firearms" with specimens of considerable historical value including armour, pole arms, arquebuses, wheel-locks and flintlocks, up to the experimental weapons of the nineteenth century transition and the breech-loaded arms of the end of the nineteenth century.

Inside and out

The Second Tower stands on the highest spur of Mount Titano, at an altitude of 755 m a.s.l. and is the intermediate point of a path that ends with the Third Tower.
The entire structure is fortified with a high external wall that serves as protection for the imposing pentagonal keep, very rare for the buildings of the time.

Curiosity

On days of maximum visibility, it is possible to see the Bebian Alps, the largest mountain range in Croatia, which lies at a distance of about 250 km away as the crow flies.