The castle was founded in the second decade of the thirteenth century by the Republic of Siena, with the main purpose of creating a defensive outpost against its rival Florence. For centuries the settlement fully fulfilled the function for which it was created, repelling from time to time a myriad of sieges and attacks. Its military function ceased from the mid-sixteenth century, when the entire Sienese state, of which our village was part, was annexed to the Florentine one. Monteriggioni still retains most of the structures of the thirteenth century and is configured as an absolutely unique place in the panorama of medieval Tuscan villages. The walls, made of stone, embrace the top of a hill with a linear development of about 570 meters. Fourteen rectangular towers protrude from the external surface, while a fifteenth is leaning against the internal curtain. Their grandeur must have been quite remarkable even in the Middle Ages, so much so as to suggest to Dante a famous similarity with the Giants located in Hell:
