Rocca Orsini

Rocca Orsini
	Scurcola Marsicana
	Rocca Orsini
	Rocca Orsini
Coordinates	42°04′01″N13°20′29″E / 42.066867°N 13.341307°E
Type	Fortess
Site history
Built	13th-16th century

Last updated September 29, 2019

Rocca Orsini (Italian for Stronghold of Orsini family ) is a Middle Ages castle in Scurcola Marsicana, Province of L'Aquila (Abruzzo).^[1]

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire and, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the closest language to it of the Romance languages. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City. It has an official minority status in western Istria. It formerly had official status in Albania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro (Kotor) and Greece, and is generally understood in Corsica and Savoie. It also used to be an official language in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa, where it still plays a significant role in various sectors. Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania, although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian and other regional languages.

The Orsini family is an Italian noble family that was one of the most influential princely families in medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini family include three popes: Celestine III (1191–1198), Nicholas III (1277–1280), and Benedict XIII (1724–1730). In addition, the family membership includes 34 cardinals, numerous condottieri, and other significant political and religious figures.

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

History

Rocca Orsini is located on the highest part of Scurcola Marsicana. It is composed by different structures belonging to different ages.^[2]

The oldest part was built by the De Pontibus family and dates back to the 13th century; it is a Norman-Swabian enclosure castle with a structure similar to many other fortifications in the area of L'Aquila, like Castle of San Pio delle Camere. The structure of the castle was based on a pentagonal tower placed at the higher top and a wall with a triangular plant leading down to the valley. Historical sources confirm the existence of this castle (named "castrum Sculcule") during the battle of Tagliacozzo in 1268 between Conradin and Charles I of Naples.

An enclosure castle is a defended residence or stronghold, built mainly of stone, in which the principal or sole defence comprises the walls and towers. Within the walls one can find the buildings associated with a medieval military settlement: a warden's house, barracks, kitchens, stables, a chapel, and a keep. Examples include Kenilworth Castle, Clitheroe Castle, and Ludlow Castle. Many in England are under the protection of English Heritage, which has counted 126 examples. There are several in Ireland also, for example King John's Castle, Carlingford.

L'Aquila is a city and comune in Central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. As of 2013, it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the Aterno river, it is surrounded by the Apennine Mountains, with the Gran Sasso d'Italia to the north-east.

The Castle of San Pio delle Camere is a medieval castle in San Pio delle Camere, province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, southern Italy.

The transformation of the castle in Renaissance fortress took place in the late 15th century by the Orsini family. Gentile Virginio Orsini, Count of Tagliacozzo and Lord of Bracciano, in 1490 involved for the design of the new structure Francesco di Giorgio Martini, already engaged in the construction of the castle of Campagnano di Roma.

Tagliacozzo is a town and comune in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, central Italy.

Bracciano is a small town in the Italian region of Lazio, 30 kilometres northwest of Rome. The town is famous for its volcanic lake and for a particularly well-preserved medieval castle Castello Orsini-Odescalchi. The lake is widely used for sailing and is popular with tourists; the castle has hosted a number of events, especially weddings of actors and singers.

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was an Italian architect, engineer, painter, sculptor, and writer. As a painter, he belonged to the Sienese School. He was considered a visionary architectural theorist—in Nikolaus Pevsner's terms: "one of the most interesting later Quattrocento architects". As a military engineer, he executed architectural designs and sculptural projects and built almost seventy fortifications for the Federico da Montefeltro, Count of Urbino, building city walls and early examples of star-shaped fortifications.

The passage of the castle to the Colonna family in the 16th century didn't bring important changes to the configuration of the structure.

The Colonna family, also known as Sciarrillo or Sciarra, is an Italian papal noble family. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other church and political leaders. The family is notable for its bitter feud with the Orsini family over influence in Rome, until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511. In 1571, the heads of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V. Thereafter, historians recorded that "no peace had been concluded between the princes of Christendom, in which they had not been included by name".

Architecture

Rocca Orsini has a triangular plant with two cylindrical towers on the corners of the base and a bastion to the northwest, replacing the previous pentagonal tower of the enclosure castle.

According to the style of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, the triangular plant reduce the number of sides to defend in case of sieges. The defensive system survived also to the spread of firearms, with the presence of bunkers at the lower level to defend the castle from the attackers and thick walls able to resist to mortars. Moreover, the walkway is uninterrupted for the whole perimeter in order to allow quick movements.

The building, abandoned for a long time, was recently restructured thanks to an initiative of a local committee.^[3]

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Avezzano is a city and comune with a population of about 42,500 inhabitants, situated in the Abruzzo region, province of L'Aquila, Italy. It is the second most populous municipality in the province and the sixth in the region. Avezzano was documented as an existing urban center in the ninth century. The city was destroyed by the earthquake of 1915. It was rebuilt after the 1944 Allied bombing. The city was decorated with the silver medal for civil merit, an award granted by the Italian Republic.

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A rocca is a type of Italian fortified stronghold, or fortress, typically located on a hilltop, beneath or on which the inhabitants of a historically clustered village or town might take refuge at times of trouble. Generally under its owners' patronage, the settlement might hope to find prosperity in better times. A rocca might in reality be no grander than a fortified farmhouse. A more extensive rocca would be referred to as a castello.

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The Castle of Sant'Eusanio Forconese is a medieval castle in Sant'Eusanio Forconese, Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, southern Italy.

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References

↑ "Rocca Orsini" (in Italian). Regione Abruzzo. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
↑ Latini, Marialuce (2000). "Scurcola Marsicana (AQ), La Rocca". Guida ai Castelli d'Abruzzo (in Italian). Pescara: Carsa Edizioni. p. 98. ISBN 88-85854-87-7.
↑ "Comitato pro Castello Orsini". Comune di Scurcola Marsicana. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

External links

"Il Castello Orsini". Comune di Scurcola Marsicana. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

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[1] "Rocca Orsini" (in Italian). Regione Abruzzo. Retrieved January 18, 2016.

[2] Latini, Marialuce (2000). "Scurcola Marsicana (AQ), La Rocca". Guida ai Castelli d'Abruzzo (in Italian). Pescara: Carsa Edizioni. p. 98. ISBN 88-85854-87-7.

[3] "Comitato pro Castello Orsini". Comune di Scurcola Marsicana. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2016.