Roccascalegna castle

Four towers on a sandstone spur, rebuilt each time weapons changed. In one of them tradition places a hand of blood.

The story

The defensive complex of Roccascalegna has gone through many changes and adaptations over the centuries, above all after the invention of gunpowder. The alterations fall into four periods.

First period — Lombard, Byzantine, Norman, Hohenstaufen

This covers the occupation of the crag and the building of the first defensive system. The castle was probably built in the 13th century by Count Gualtieri di Palearia. In 883 Roccascalegna was administered by the monks of San Pancrazio; in 1045 the Normans led by Geoffrey of Hauteville moved into Abruzzo and Roccascalegna passed under their rule. The Hauteville family did more for the community than any other: besides the castle, they also strengthened the abbey of San Pancrazio. By the end of this period the stronghold consisted of four square towers joined by battlemented walls.

Second period — Angevin and Aragonese

This is when the main changes to the defensive system were made, to suit the new firearms:

• the towers were enlarged and rounded, altered in shape, in height and in the thickness of their walls;
• the central tower was built and the entrance tower enlarged;
• the space was extended with an earth platform for the garden;
• the perimeter walls were raised;
• the sentry tower was protected by a double wall;
• the well was turned into a cistern.

Third and fourth periods

Neither the Carafa nor the Corvis made any significant changes: they probably saw to the filter tank for rainwater and to the garden. Around 1700 the complex was sold. The municipality of Roccascalegna acquired it in 1985: what stands today is the result of extensive restoration work that only ended in 1996.

What there is to see

The original entrance stairway dates from about 1771, while the drawbridge was removed after the sentry box was built on the entrance front: today a wooden walkway, no longer movable, recalls it. The garden, laid out in four beds, is the earth fill of a number of Norman-period rooms, about a metre and a half below the present level.

In the collapsed tower local tradition places the “hand of blood”: the bloody print left by the dying baron, stabbed in revenge after imposing a tax on brides who could not pay the marriage levy.

The prison tower dates from the end of the 15th century: it is called that because a chain used as an ankle iron was found there. The walls are reinforced for about three metres and inside there are notches cut into them, the prisoners' pastime. The oven tower is the one with the most layers: the oven belongs to the Norman phase, the upper storey to the last phase under the Annecchini.

The small square tower is the oldest, built around the 13th or 14th century out of reused material, including some red stone jambs carved with seven-branched Jewish candelabra. Inside there is graffiti left by soldiers who passed through during the Second World War. The church, built in 1577, was dedicated to the Holy Rosary: of its three original altars only one is left today, together with a font.

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