THE CITTADELLA IS A LARGE fort in the city of Alessandria in Piedmont, Northern Italy. Currently, it stands as one of the best-preserved fortresses designed in the modern era. The construction of the star fort of Alessandria began in the early 18th-century, when, after the War of the Spanish Succession, the House of Savoy took control of the city.

The fort, part of a larger defense system all around the domains of the Savoy family, was built starting in 1732 at the expense of the former neighborhood of Bergoglio. The result was a large, six-bastioned fortress surrounded by a moat and protected by more fortifications.