Location: L'Aquila Province Map
Constructed: 10th- 13th century
Rocca Calascio is located in Province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo of Italy. The construction of the castle started with a single square tower. Rocca Calascio is situated at a height of 1550 meters above sea level this tower was protecting a strategic Navelli valley below. In the 13th century Rocca Calascio was protected with further fortifications including central square tower that was enlarged and improved. After the Calascio castle passed into the hands of Piccolomini from its previous owner Baron of Carapelle, it underwent another restoration and extension project. However today only square defenses with its four cone like structures are preserved. Most of these walls of Rocca Calascio were destroyed by an earthquake that struck the citadel in November 1461. Ironically the fortress that was never tested in the battle was quickly abandoned due to natural causes. Although the village of Calascio managed to recover after many of the structures were destroyed there as well. Today Rocca Calascio is open to tourists and is located within Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park. A small 17th century octagonal church of Santa Maria della Pieta is located nearby. It contains paintings of a local artist Tofilo Patini, although you will probably need an appointment if you want to be certain the church is open.
The foundation of the fortress dates back to Ruggero
II d'Altavilla who probably promoted its construction after the
Norman conquest of 1140; however, the first historical document that
mentions the name is dated to 1239, while the first that attests its
presence to 1380. Some sources believe that the structure may have
been built on the remains of a pre-existing fortification of Roman
origin. It was inserted in a complex system of fortifications, for
defensive purposes, which controlled the Abruzzo valleys; due to its
proximity to the vast pastoral basin of Campo Imperatore, the
fortress played an important role in relation to the paths of
transhumance.
He was part - with Calascio, Carapelle
Calvisio, Castelvecchio Calvisio and Santo Stefano di Sessanio - of
the famous barony of Carapelle, whose historical events he followed
until 1806, the year of the abolition of feudality. Over the
centuries the Pagliara, Colonna, Celano, Caldora, Accrocciamuro,
Piccolomini Todeschini, Del Pezzo, Cattaneo, Medici and Borbone
families followed one another in the domain; in particular, in 1463,
on concession from Ferdinando I of Naples, the fortress passed to
Antonio Todeschini of the Piccolomini family who endowed the
structure with the pebble wall and four cylindrical towers with
Ghibelline battlements.
In 1703 a violent earthquake occurred
which damaged the castle and almost entirely destroyed the village
below; only the lower part of the medieval village was rebuilt while
the rest of the population found refuge further downstream, in the
current town of Calascio. In the following decades, once its
strategic function ended, the fortress went into decline and was
gradually abandoned until it was completely uninhabited in 1957.
Since the 1980s, following the success of some film settings -
above all, Ladyhawke from 1985 and The Name of the Rose from 1986 -
the castle has undergone restoration and consolidation works and
some houses in the village medieval were recovered and converted to
accommodation facilities. Rocca Calascio has become one of the main
tourist destinations in the Abruzzo Aquila and, in 2019, its castle
was included by National Geographic in the list of the 15 most
beautiful in the world.
Rocca Calascio is
located on a ridge of the southern sub-ridge of the Gran Sasso
d'Italia massif, at an altitude of 1 460 meters above sea level. The
particularly favorable position, barycentric between the Campo
Imperatore plateau to the north, the Navelli plateau to the
south-west and the Tirino valley to the south-east, made it one of
the main fortifications of Abruzzo. and allowed the control of the
territory both from the defensive point of view, and as regards the
routes linked to transhumance.
The fortress consists of a
castle and the adjacent medieval village; the latter, which develops
towards the south-west, is made up of a higher, older part, of which
only some archaeological remains remain and a lower, more recent and
partially recovered part. On the opposite north-east side, towards
Campo Imperatore, is the church of Santa Maria della Pietà.
The complex is located just above the town of Calascio, from which
it is about 3 km away for a difference in altitude of 200 meters. It
can be reached by car, up to the entrance of the village, or on foot
(about 40 minutes on foot); on summer weekends, given the limited
width of the roadway and the scarcity of parking, the access road is
closed to cars and a paid shuttle service is available.
The castle is the most significant monument of the entire
fortress. It is located on the highest point of the ridge, in a
dominant position over all the surrounding valleys, and was used as
a military observation point in communication with other nearby
towers and castles, up to the Adriatic Sea.
The structure,
entirely of local white stone with squared ashlars, consists of a
central keep of ancient origin, partially decapitated, surrounded by
a circle of walls and four corner towers with a strongly sloping
circular base, built later, starting from the XIII century. Access
was through an opening on the eastern side located about five meters
from the ground, which was accessed via a wooden ramp, originally
retractable, resting on stone shelves.
On the south-west side of the fortress, along
the path that climbs from the town of Calascio, is the medieval
village which constitutes a single fortified organism with the
castle. Its development is linked to the modest size of the castle
and the small number of men it could accommodate, as well as the
need to safeguard the population from invaders. The connection with
the castle was through a wooden drawbridge, now replaced by a simple
ramp.
It can be divided into two parts, an original one
adjacent to the castle and a more recent one located further
downstream. The upper part, of which only a few ruins remain, fell
into disuse already following the destruction caused by the
earthquakes of 1348-49 and the Aquila earthquake of 1461, being
completely abandoned with the earthquake of 1703; the lower part was
inhabited until the second post-war period and was then subjected to
some restoration interventions at the end of the 20th century.
Near the fortress, on the
path that leads to Santo Stefano di Sessanio and Campo Imperatore,
there is the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, built in 1596 on the
place where, according to legend, the local population had the best
of a band of brigands .
The church, probably founded on a
pre-existing Renaissance aedicule, has an octagonal external
structure with an environment used as a sacristy leaning against one
of the facades and a dome with eight segments. The interior,
articulated on a system of Tuscan pilasters, presents a painting
depicting the Miraculous Virgin and a sculpture of San Michele
armed. The temple is now used as a simple oratory and is a
destination for faithful and devotees.
Rocca Calascio and its progressive depopulation
were the subject, in 1968, of the documentary In the silence of the
stones by Romano Scavolini.
Since the eighties of the
twentieth century, the Aquila area of the Gran Sasso d'Italia has
been used as a setting for numerous film productions, receiving a
fair tourist and image return. The first feature film set at the
Rocca is Amici mie - Atto IIº (Italy, 1982). Subsequently, it was
the turn of Ladyhawke (USA, 1985) where the fortress (then not yet
restored) was the refuge of the hermit personified by Leo McKern.
Then it hosted the set of Il nome della rosa (Italy, 1986), winner
of numerous international awards. Later, Il viaggio della sposa
(Italy, 1997) and L'orizzonte degli eventi (Italy, 2005) were set
here. The fortress is also visible in some scenes of the film The
American (USA, 2010) with George Clooney, shot entirely in the
province of L'Aquila, in particular between Sulmona, Castel del
Monte, Capestrano, Calascio and Castelvecchio Calvisio.
Rocca
Calascio was also the set of some television series, including the
productions of Rai La Piovra 7 - Investigation into the death of
Commissioner Cattani (Italy, 1995) and Padre Pio (Italy, 2006).