With the disappeared castle of Rivergaro, which was located a little further downstream, and with the castles of Statto and Rivalta, located on the other side of the river, it formed a defensive quadrilateral that controlled the caminus Genue, the road that led from Piacenza to Genoa connecting the Po Valley with the sea. The upper part of the tower (in which the feudal lord and the garrison barricaded themselves in desperate cases to try to save themselves from the attackers) is crowned with Ghibelline battlements; on one facade a small window with a monobloc stone vault suggests that the building (at least the lower part) must be from the thirteenth century. A first wall of fifteen meters in height, along which the patrol path runs, develops in the shape of an irregular hexagon, and the residential and servants' blocks built in a subsequent period are adjacent to it