It was built between 1195 and 1199, along the torrent Muson when Treviso, feeling threatened by the nearby Padua and Vicenza, had a powerful castle raised on this pre-existing embankment, with the purpose of monitoring its land.
In ten years the Castle of Castelfranco was erected surrounded by walls and by a surrounding moat, where the waters of the Avenue and Musonello were conveyed. Once the work was finished he sent to live there a hundred families, to whom he granted lands and estates exempt from taxes. That’s way the name “Castelfranco”.
It derives from the toponym Castel-francho which means castle "free" from taxes.The imposing walls of the city still surprise tourists today: with a curtain of about 17 meters in height and 250 meters on each side, it still shows the defensive capabilities of the settlement and the difficulties in conquering this military garrison.
Today these walls are the most characteristic element of the city along with its historic center, which still preserves the memories of Giorgione, enigmatic painter of dreams who was born here and began to paint, revolutionizing the canons of Renaissance painting.
His presence materializes within the neoclassical Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Liberale, in an extraordinary poetic and compositional creation commissioned by the knight Tuzio Costanzo for the family chapel, on the occasion of the death of his son Matteo who fell during a military operation.
In the pictorial architecture of the painting we find the "Madonna with the Child", raised on a high throne, next to San Francesco and San Liberale that give a dumb and melancholy look to the marble effigy of the deceased placed at the foot of the altar. Also worthvisiting is the Casa di Giorgione Museum, set up in the place considered the painter's birthplace. (The Civic Tower is also part of the museum complex).
