Rocca Calascio

Rocca Calascio is a ruined mountaintop fortress or "rocca" in the Province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. At an elevation of 1460 meters, the Rocca of Calascio is the highest fortress in Italy. Built of stone and masonry exclusively for military purposes and intended only to accommodate troops, the fortress overlooks the Plain of Navelli at one of the highest points in the ancient Barony of Carapelle. The fortress was started in the tenth century as a single citadel watchtower; a walled courtyard with four cylindrical towers at the corners around a taller inner tower was added in the thirteenth century. The lower half of the fortress is built with distinctively larger stones than its upper half. It is believed that this feature was to make its base impenetrable to invaders. The fortress was never tested in battle. However, it was badly damaged in 1703 by an earthquake. While the town of Calascio, which lies below the fortress, was rebuilt, the fortress was not. [ [http://www.calascio.com/histcal5.htm Calascio Today by Silvio Germano, translation by Paul Zelus and Alex Frasco] ] Near the fortress, at a slightly lower elevation, is Santa Maria della Pietà, an octagonal church built in the seventeenth century.

Rocca Calascio was the location for the final scene of Richard Donner film "Ladyhawke", which starred Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, and Leo McKern. [ [http://www.abruzzofilmcommission.org/en/girato_abruzzo/index.php Filmed in Abruzzo, the Abruzzo Film Commission] ]

Rocca Calascio lies within the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park and alongside the high plain of Campo Imperatore.

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