Rocca Maggiore

Standing on the top of the Asio hill, at 500 meters above sea level, the Rocca Maggiore of Assisi is one of the town’s most majestic and representative monuments.
It is probable that were already settlements of the ancient Umbrians here in the 4th-3rd century BC, but the first certain information we have regarding the presence of a military fortification dates back to 1174, when the city was occupied by the Swabian dynasty on behalf of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. It is also said that a young Frederick II stayed there under the care of Conrad Lutzen, who was then Count of the town. Following the bloody revolt of 1198 by the people of Assisi, in which a young Francis also took part, the fortress was razed to the ground, as it was a symbol of imperial oppression over the town.
The extraordinary monument that we see today is therefore the result of a 14th-century reconstruction conceived by the cardinal and papal legate Egidio Alvarez de Albornoz, who was commissioned by Pope Innocent IV to build numerous military fortresses, known as “Albornoz fortresses,” in an attempt to reconquer those lands that had escaped the control of the Church.
In the years that followed further additions would be made to the fortress, including the tower of the “Mastio,” or donjon, by Biordo Michelotti, which rises proudly above the center of the fortress, and the passageway with the polygonal tower completed by Pope Pius II. This tower offers one of the most beautiful views of the entire Umbra valley. In 1535, Pope Paul III had a circular bastion added to the side of the entrance, in an attempt to diminish the effects of enemy artillery. Just a few years later, however, the fortress lost its military function, such that its cannons were brought to the Rocca Paolina in Perugia.

It was then plundered of all its furnishings and abandoned for several centuries until the unification of Italy, when the Municipality purchased it for the symbolic sum of 100 lire, beginning a series of restoration works which have continued to the present.
The Rocca Maggiore Museum offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy the magnificent views from the towers and from the area outside the fortress, and to admire the inside with its large rooms and the coats of arms testifying to the historical grandeur of Assisi during the Middle Ages.