A still exciting place due to the strength of a ruin on the embankment, with a clear role of control in the plain, far enough from the city to allow it to organize a defense, holding the enemy at bay for a few hours.
The Tower is situated between two canals that flow almost parallel (Brancaglia and Lozzo). The only road that connected Este with Montagnana until 1911 passed between the tower and the Church of S.Bartolomeo.
The Rocca is not the remnant of a now vanished settlement: it has always been isolated. In 1483 Marin Sanudo, in his “Itinerary for the Venetian Terraferma,” wrote: “Ponte de la Thorre is a little castle not far from Este, and this is situated in the water that comes from Lake Vigizuolo (…) Now the water encircles it and surrounds it, where there are bridges passing over, and this tower is walled around with a wall, and it is high".
After 1515, Venice regained complete control of the mainland: having lost its defensive functions, the Castle, the Rocca della Torre, and other military works were gradually ceded, and in 1597 the Magnificent Community of Este purchased the Tower for local customs police functions.
The tower was part of a system of five very ancient Este outposts (perhaps from the 11th century) along the roads leading to the city, at controllable points because they were forced to cross water routes. Military attention was strong: in 1284 a Padua edict prohibited the construction of water mills or buildings in the moat of the Tower of Este, to keep it visible and difficult to cross without being spotted.
In 1907 the wooden bridge between the Rocca and the small church was swept away by a flood; a new road was built about 100 meters north of the Rocca, partly to create an embankment with a gentler slope to cross the levee and partly to allow the widening of the Scolo di Lozzo.
