ROCCA, Rocca

Hi, my name’s Scott, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Rocca Maggiore of Assisi.

The Rocca Maggiore fortress looks down over Assisi with its striking geometric shapes and pale stone. The long, high walls and the formidable towers transmit a notable sense of strength, leading you to believe the fortification guaranteed excellent protection for Assisi. This, however, wasn’t the construction’s original function.

Let me begin by telling you about the earliest information we have about this fortress, so you can draw your own conclusions. In the last years of the 12th century, Frederick Barbarossa, head of the Holy Roman Empire, a vast area loosely corresponding to central Europe and the north central Italy, ordered the occupation of Assisi, which was fighting for its independence. As you can imagine, Barbarossa’s envoy was not a welcome visitor to Assisi, and for his safety, he stayed in the castle where he was joined for a time by the emperor himself.

The castle was not the fortress you can see today, however, since it was destroyed by a popular uprising and abandoned a few years later, perhaps while it was hosting the future great emperor Frederick II, at the time just four years of age....