The Rocca Maggiore is a castle which dominated, for more than eight hundred years, the citadel of Assisi and the valley of Tescio, constituting the most viable fortification for their defense.

Description and history

Built in 1316, and include two fortresses, Major and Minor. The first documented regarding the fortress date back to the 1173, when the German diplomat and Catholic Archbishop Christian of Mainz (1130 - 1183, chancellor of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

during the reign of

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Frederick I Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt o ...

, occupied Assisi on behalf of the sovereign who stayed there for a short time. The young future

King of Sicily The monarchs of Sicily ruled from the establishment of the County of Sicily in 1071 until the "perfect fusion" in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816. The origins of the Sicilian monarchy lie in the Norman conquest of southern Italy which occ ...

and

Frederick II also lived there, entrusted by his mother Costanza d'Altavilla to the Duchess of Urslingen, wife of

Duke of Spoleto The Duke of Spoleto was the ruler of Spoleto and most of central Italy outside the Papal States during the Early and High Middle Ages (c. 500 – 1300). The first dukes were appointed by the Lombard king, but they were independent in practice. Th ...

and '' comes Assisi '' Corrado, confidant of the monarch Swabian.
Queen Empress Constance returned to

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and then return to Assisi with the wife Henry VI: the baptism of Constantine was celebrated in Cathedral of San Rufino and was imposed the auspicious name (of the two grandparents) Frederick Roger. In 1198 the city passed to the

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...

, and the people, causing extensive damage to the fortress, drove the imperial legate with Frederick, who was only four years. In that year

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

was sixteen. The fortress was reconstructed in 1356, the initiative of

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Albornoz (1310 - 1367), commissioned by

Innocent VI Pope Innocent VI ( la, Innocentius VI; 1282 or 1295 – 12 September 1362), born Étienne Aubert, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 December 1352 to his death in September 1362. He was the fifth Avignon pope a ...

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

, to strengthen the fortifications of the

Papal The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. In 1458, the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

and Lord of Assisi

Jacopo Piccinino Jacopo Piccinino (1423 - July 1465) was an Italian condottiero and nobleman, the son of military leader Niccolò Piccinino. A native of Perugia, he was the feudal lord of Sulmona, Sterpeto, Assisi, Chieti, Città Sant'Angelo, Francavilla al Mare, ...

(1423 - 1465 built the polygonal tower north -occidentale, then finished by

Pope Pius II Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...

, and connected to the rest of the walls of a corridor equipped and strengthened. The complex consists of a fortress walls, built with the pink stone of Mount Subasio, trapezoidal, with towers at each corner, which includes square

formwork Formwork is Molding (process), molds into which concrete or similar materials are either precast concrete, precast or cast-in-place concrete, cast-in-place. In the context of concrete construction, the falsework supports the shuttering mold ...

, renovated in 1478 by

Sixtus V Pope Sixtus V ( it, Sisto V; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order ...

, on which stands the keep. The inside of the fortress (where, in 1972, some scenes of the movie "

Brother Sun, Sister Moon ''Brother Sun, Sister Moon'' ( it, Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna) is a 1972 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Graham Faulkner and Judi Bowker. The film is an examination of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Plot Francesco, the sp ...

", directed by

Franco Zeffirelli Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post-World War II era, ...

keep.)leads to the entrance of the round bastion, commissioned in 1535 by

Paul III Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549. He came to ...

. There is a large fenced yard, where were the rooms of service, and the

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

, former home of the castle, divided into four rooms accessible by a spiral staircase. The Rocca Maggiore joins, through the fourteenth century walls, with its fortress Minor, or ''stronghold'' or ''keep of St. Anthony'', commissioned by Albornoz in order to consolidate, to the mountain, that part of fortification.Amoni, p. 50

Gallery

File:Busto di Federico II di Svevia.jpg, Federico II, young File:Rocca Maggiore Evening Assisi Italy Sep19 D72 12038.jpg, In evening light, Sep '19 File:Assisi, Rocca Maggiore by night.JPG, The fortress, at night File:RoccaMaggiore.Assisi01.jpg, View of the fortress, Apr '08 File:Rocca Maggiore Assisi 27.JPG, The entrance File:Rocca Maggiore Assisi 28.JPG, The enclosed courtyard File:Rocca Maggiore Assisi 46.JPG, the tower File:Rocca Minore 01.JPG, The fortress Minor

Note

Bibliography

* AA. VV., '' Umbria '', the Italian Touring Club, Perugia 2004. * Daniel Amoni, Castles, Fortresses and Castles of Umbria, Quattroemme, Perugia 1999. *

Georgina Masson Georgina Masson (1912–1980) was a British author and photographer. Born Marion Johnson, and known as Babs to her friends, Georgina Masson is her literary pseudonym. Johnson was born in Rawalpindi, India, on 23 March 1912. She was the daugh ...

, '' Frederick II '', Rusconi, Milan 1978.

Description and history

Gallery

Note

Bibliography

See also