Wedding banquets, receptions, buffets, gala dinners and private parties, as well as conferences, seminars and training courses, can be organized at the Fortezza del Girifalco, the fortress on the hill that overlooks Cortona in Tuscany. Each request is reviewed by a committee and no capacity is published, so the number of guests is agreed with the managers case by case. The site combines a medieval keep, an inner courtyard, a garden and four bastions, with views across the Valdichiana and Lake Trasimeno.
Seminars and company events
Conferences, seminars and professional training courses are accepted when an organization promotes them: a public body, a private company or an association. Requests go by email at least 15 days before the date. A committee made up of members of the cultural association ONTHEMOVE, which runs the fortress, and of the Comune di Cortona reviews each one. An approved event is set out in a written agreement that fixes the type of event, its length, the expected number of participants and the obligations of each side. The three floors of the keep, about 200 square meters each, are the main indoor volume. The fortress also runs its own program of art exhibitions, theater, tastings, food markets and live music.
Weddings and receptions
The managers accept wedding banquets, receptions, buffets, gala dinners and private parties under the same procedure. The courtyard and the garden inside the walls give outdoor settings, while the walkway at the top of the keep and the tip of the Santa Margherita bastion serve as viewpoints over the valley. The website does not mention civil ceremonies at the fortress.
Rooms and capacities
The website describes eight parts of the site without giving capacities. The entrance building, the former guardhouse, has two levels, with a vaulted ground floor that still holds the rooms of the drawbridge mechanism and a secret staircase. The pentagonal inner courtyard has a cistern beneath its center. The keep, or Palazzo del Capitano, is the oldest part, with three floors of about 200 square meters and a walkway along the courtyard wall from the top floor. A large garden lies within the walls. The half-bastion of Santa Maria Nuova was restored in 2010 and has an external freight elevator, the pentagonal Santa Margherita bastion has a ramp up to its tip, the Sant'Egidio bastion holds a single chamber with two gun ports, and the San Giusto bastion, outside the town walls, has a vaulted hall divided by arches, with smaller side rooms.
Catering
The Bistrot in Fortezza serves traditional dishes made with produce from Valdichiana suppliers and Slow Food presidia, with wines from Tuscan estates. The website does not say whether it caters private events.
History and setting
A fortified site on this hill probably goes back to the 6th or 5th century BC, when the Etruscan walls followed a similar line. Written sources first describe a fortress in 1258. It was taken and sacked several times during the wars with Arezzo, and in 1411 it was sold with the town to the Florentine Republic, which began rebuilding it in 1527 and tied it to the town walls. The fortress is open to visitors every day.
Getting there
The fortress stands on Via di Fortezza, at the top of Cortona, in the province of Arezzo. The managing association's office is on Via Roma in the town center.
