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The castle of the Ezzelini or upper castle, is a medieval fortification in the town of Bassano del Grappa. The fortification has a quadrilateral shape with high walls from 7.50 to 13.50 m; the structure is made with alternating rows of bricks and pebbles collected directly from the nearby Brenta river. The Bolzonella tower (also called Ser Ivano, named after the Ezzelino III masnadiero) is located in the southwest corner.

The construction of the castle is to be framed in the first defensive fortifications built around the Church of Santa Maria, as evidenced by a document dating back to the year 998; in the second half of the twelfth century the bishop of Vicenza, to whom the castle belonged, gave it to Ecelo I, the progenitor of what was once the powerful Ezzelini family. The oldest structures still present date back to the 12th and 13th centuries, when the pentagonal city wall to the north and the Orsazzo tower were built. The castle was operational during the dominations of the Scaligeri (1311-87), the Visconti (1387-1404) and finally the Republic of Venice after the dedication of 1404. In 1411, during the war between the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary, its fortifications resisted the attacks of the first bombards fielded by the troops of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg who devastated the territory; instead they fell under the impact of the armies of Maximilian I of Habsburg during the war of the League of Cambrai in 1508. After that it was decommissioned and the abandonment of the military function favored the development of commercial and artisanal activities in the city of Bassano. inside the walls.