The fortifications of the residential area of Villa di Chiesa were built in the second half of the XIII century on the wishes of the della Gherardesca family. The Medieval city walls surrounded the entire town which nowadays is the old town centre; as well as the walls, it also took in the entrance gates and the lookout and defence towers.
The defence wall belt was polygonal shaped, and the wall was 7 metres high, produced in a mix of stones with crenellated end point; the 20 towers, on the other hand, stood 10 metres high. Four entrance gates provided access to the town centre: Porta Maestra to the south, Porta Sant’Antonio to the north, Porta Castello to the south-east and Porta Nuova to the west. A wooden fence and moat ran all the way round the fortified wall.
Even though some parts of the wall have been absorbed over time into homes and others demolished in the XIX century, the remaining walls are in good condition; some parts inside the city can be observed like those next to the cloisters of San Francesco or the long stretch in via Tangheroni.
