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All Italy Calascio Rocca Calascio

Rocca Calascio

What looks like a link in Gondor's early warning system is actually a centuries-old Italian fortress.

Calascio, Italy

Added By
voidbrain
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Rocca Calascio   Alessandro Malatesta
Rocca Calascio   Alessandro Malatesta
Imposing view from below   Pietro Valocchi
Fortress with ruins of small surrounding medieval village in the foreground   Colombaie
Wooden bridge into fortress   Colombaie
Inside the ruined fortress   Pietro Valocchi
Last rays of the setting sun   Alessandro Giangiulio
Brooding in twilight   Alessandro Malatesta
Rocca Calascio, Santa Maria della Pietà church, and the surrounding Campo Imperatore, aka Italy’s “Little Tibet”   Marco Bellucci
Good place to light a beacon   Luigi Selmi
Falconer at Rocca Calascio   tinydancer1345 / Atlas Obscura User
  massimiliano20097 / Atlas Obscura User
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About

In Middle-Earth, Rocca Calascio would be topped with a big pile of wood, ready to be set ablaze by attendants in Gondor’s moment of need. Here, on regular Earth, it was a military garrison and watchtower that kept tabs on the mountain meadows spread out below.

Perched atop a rocky peak 1,460 meters (4,790 feet) above sea level, Rocca Calascio is the highest fortress in the Apennine Mountains, which is the mountain range that runs the length of the Italian peninsula; it is likewise the highest fortress in Italy and one of the highest in all of Europe.

The structure started as a single watchtower built in the 10th century, and was gradually built upon and expanded over the following centuries to include four corner towers connected by walls enclosing the original tower in an interior courtyard. In the 16th century, it came under the control of the powerful Medici family, who were interested in controlling Abruzzo’s mountain roads to ensure the flow of wool to the Florentine cloth industry.

The fortress itself was built only to be a military facility, and included no accommodations for a civilian population. Nevertheless, a small village sprung up nestled close to the footings of the walls and supported a small community until an earthquake in 1703 destroyed the houses and the fortress. The villagers moved to the lower, safer town of Calascio; the fortress, being severely damaged and, by that point, of questionable use, was abandoned. Rocca Calascio has been an empty ruin ever since.

However, the commanding view for which it was built still exists and remains as breathtaking as it was a millennium ago. And though no scenes from The Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed here, it was used as a filming location for The Name of the Rose (in which Sean Connery plays a crime-solving medieval monk) and served as the setting for the final scene in Ladyhawke. 

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Fortresses Panoramas Ruins Film Locations Film

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Added By

voidbrain

Edited By

RHyzer, MagnumPI, tinydancer1345, massimiliano20097

  • RHyzer
  • MagnumPI
  • tinydancer1345
  • massimiliano20097

Published

April 1, 2016

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Sources
  • http://www.italianways.com/rocca-calascio/
  • http://www.lifeinabruzzo.com/rocca-calascio/
  • http://blog.abruzzoupndown.com/2011/06/rocca-calascio-history-town-and.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocca_Calascio
Rocca Calascio
Via Rocca Calascio
Calascio, 67020
Italy
42.329477, 13.688834
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