Piazza degli Scacchi Site Features

The square is a broad rectangle closed on one side by the Castello Inferiore, a compact brick keep with a crenellated tower, and on the others by arcaded houses.

The chessboard itself is set into the paving at the centre, in light and dark stone, at full playing scale. It is a permanent civic feature rather than something laid out for the event -- which is why walking across it on an ordinary Tuesday is faintly odd and rather good.

Above and behind, the Scaligeri wall climbs the hillside to the upper castle, so the square has a fortification rising directly out of it.

The paved chessboard

Full-size, permanent, and in use as a public square the rest of the time.

The Castello Inferiore

Closing one side, with the museum and the Partita a Scacchi costumes inside.

The wall up the hill

Climbing directly from the square to the upper castle.

Cherry season

In June the market stalls here sell the Marostica IGP cherry.

The square sits at the foot of the Pausolino hill, with the lower castle closing one side and the Scaligeri wall climbing the slope directly behind it to the upper castle. The cherry orchards spread across the hillsides on either side, and the Asiago plateau stands above.