The Rio Secco gorges

A narrow gorge between the Morge della Penna and the castle crag, where Mediterranean scrub grows and the peregrine falcon circles.

The story

The castle and village of Roccascalegna cannot be separated from the shape of the land around them. The churches, the houses and the towers rest on the sandstone outcrops that run down to the valley at right angles to the Rio Secco stream.

From the top of the tower, inside the castle, the view is dominated by the hills and the mountains that close the horizon. Here and there rock masses of different kinds stand out, the so-called “ligurids”: gypsum, limestone and sandstone carried by the sea and laid down here millions of years ago, forming what geologists call the Sangro-Aventino gravity flow.

Why exactly here

It was these very outcrops, for the defence they offered, that were chosen in the Middle Ages as sites for castles and settlements, giving rise to a remarkable pattern of settlement with extraordinary effects on the landscape. The variety of soils also enriches the vegetation, among the most unusual in Europe: much of this land is subject to naturalistic and landscape protection.

The Site of Community Importance “Juniperus macrocarpa juniper scrub and gorges of the Rio Secco stream” takes in most of the sandstone outcrops near the village and the castle, and the land further down the valley.

The “Fuci”

Just below the castle, the Rio Secco has forced a way through between the Morge della Penna, a long sandstone ridge, and the castle crags, cutting a deep, narrow gorge that the village calls “Fuci”, that is, mouths. The gorge is walled by high rock faces on which a luxuriant Mediterranean vegetation grows, with patches of holm-oak wood where the strawberry trees stand out; the rare prickly junipers are found here too. And it is in this setting that the peregrine falcon can be seen circling.