Fort San Giovanni which was built around a pre-existing tower between 1640 and 1644 on a project by the Spanish commander Ferdinando Glazer. The perimeter of the fort develops adapting to the hillside and is characterized, to the south, by high pincer walls with hanging guardhouses on the edges.

The territory of Finale, formerly belonging to the Del Carretto marquisate, in 1598 was ceded to the Spanish Crown, interested in having access to the sea through which to reach, without passing through the port of Genoa, the Duchy of Milan and Flanders.

With this objective, projects were started for the adaptation of the fortifications, the construction of a new port and the improvement of the road network between Finale and Milan. The complex was modernized and enlarged throughout the 1600s; on the occasion of the passage of the infanta Margherita of Spain in 1666, the engineer Gaspare Beretta carried out the works to refurbish the road along which the fort is located and which took his name, destined to unite Finale with the territories of Monferrato and Milan .

When Finale passed to the Republic of Genoa in 1713, the fort was partially demolished in the northern part. From then on it was abandoned until 1822, when the Savoy government adapted it to a prison, a destination which it maintained until the early 1900s.