The first operations to update the Medieval walls of Asti date back to the period of Spanish occupation, in the early sixteenth century. Three bastions, which juxtaposed with the city walls, were built, with Gian Maria Olgiati representing the final stage in 1547, along with the construction of four additional bulwarks and the fortification of three castles for housing the artillery.
These structures in Asti never proceeded past the point of provisional work for a number of reasons, chiefly financial. The works were limited to the construction of reinforcing bastions at the weakest and most exposed parts of the curtain, which was the part dating to the end of the 13th century. The Bastione della Maddalena, despite the absence of its parapets and most of its exterior coverings, presents a rare testimonial to the fortification era of the modern age, which occurred prior to the Savoyard restoration ordered by Duke Emanuele Filiberto in the second half of the 16th century.
