Rocca Calascio

A lone stone keep on a spur at 1,460 metres, Rocca Calascio surveys the Gran Sasso, Campo Imperatore and the Tirino valley from above the village of Calascio. Damaged by the 1461 earthquake and rebuilt by the Piccolomini around 1480, its ruined walls appeared in Ladyhawke and The Name of the Rose.

Why it matters

The Comune di Calascio describes Rocca Calascio as the highest castle in the Apennines. Its first documentary citation dates to 1380 and describes an isolated watchtower; municipal tradition places the tower around the year 1000 and attributes it to the Norman period.

The ridge commands views over Campo Imperatore, the Tirino valley and the Piana di Navelli. The fortress is thought to have relayed signals toward castles nearer the Adriatic coast and to have guarded drove roads used by the transhumance economy. Under the Dogana della mena delle pecore in Puglia, baronial towns around Calascio are recorded as managing more than 90,000 sheep by 1470.

What to notice

The castle reflects two building campaigns. The older element is the tall rectangular keep of local white stone. From about 1480, under Antonio Piccolomini, a lower curtain wall with four cylindrical towers and Ghibelline merlons was added around it. The surrounding landscape includes the Gran Sasso chain, the Majella massif and the Sirente-Velino group; below the fortress lie the medieval borgo and the town of Calascio.

Context and history

The documented story begins in 1380, though the tower's origins are older and attributed by tradition to the Norman period. The fortress passed through the hands of the Pagliara, Colonna, Piccolomini, Cattaneo, Medici and Borbone families as the region's lordships shifted.

After the 1461 earthquake, Antonio Piccolomini rebuilt the damaged town and, from about 1480, surrounded the old tower with the four round towers and curtain wall visible today. In 1579 Costanza Piccolomini sold the barony, including Capestrano and lands at Ofena and Castel del Monte, to Francesco Maria de' Medici; in 1743 the territory passed to the Bourbons.

The 1703 earthquake damaged the castle and village below. The Comune records a decline in the Rocca's population from roughly 800 in 1600 to none by 1957. Restoration work from the 1980s stabilised the ruin. The fortress has also appeared in films including Amici miei – Atto IIº, Ladyhawke and Il nome della rosa.