Rocca Maggiore Castle - Assisi, Italy
N 43° 04.394 E 012° 36.934
33T E 305876 N 4771706
The Rocca Maggiore castle rises on a hilltop surrounded by a high defense wall, with a tower in the centre. Documented for the first time in 1174, the Rocca had been erected as a feudal castle.
Waymark Code: WMMWXV
Location: Umbria, Italy
Date Posted: 11/16/2014
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This fortress stands at the highest point in the city. The scant archeological evidence that has been found here suggests that it was the acropolis of the ancient city, just inside the Roman walls.
The first castle of the site seems to have been built by Charlemagne after he sacked the city in 773. However, the earliest surviving documentary reference to a fortress here dates to 1174, when Christian of Mainz subdued Assisi on behalf of the Emperor Frederick I. In the period 1177-98, this fortress was the main residence Conrad of Urslingen, whom Frederick I appointed as Duke of Spoleto and Count of Assisi. The citizens of Assisi tore it down when they declared a free commune in 1198. The site was probably fortified again in the early 14th century, but any such fortifications would have been destroyed in 1321 when Perugia finally subjugated the city.
Cardinal Albornoz arrived in Perugia in 1354, and this marked the start of a period of increasing independence for Assisi. The city authorities resolved to restore the Rocca and the city walls, although opposition from Perugia delayed the work. Ugolino di Montemarte, who was sent to Assisi in 1361 to collect taxes on behalf of Cardinal Albornoz, may also have played a part in designing the fortifications, which were finally rebuilt in 1362-5. A castellan was documented in 1365, which suggests that much of the rebuilding was complete by that time. After the mercenary army of Cardinal Albornoz definitively defeated the Perugians in 1367, the citizens of Assisi enthusiastically welcomed him into the city and made a formal submission. Ugolino di Montemarte was appointed Lieutenant of Assisi in 1368.
The fortress at the heart of the new defences, which was known as Rocca Maggiore, was central to the control of the city below. It formed part of the medieval walls of the city, between Porta San Giacomo and Porta Perlici. The additions made to it during the subsequent period are described below. The last of these was the circular bastion, which Pope Paul III built in 1535 to underline his control of the city. However, the fortress was no longer strategically important by this time, and fact underlined when he transferred its cannons to the Rocca Paolina, Perugia in 1543. Rocca Maggiore was then used as a prison until ca. 1600, when it was abandoned.
The Commune acquired the building in 1883 and restored it as a tourist attraction in ca. 1891-1900. It was extensively restored in 2002.