Rocca degli Acquaviva d’Atri

The fortress was built by the family Acquaviva in 1300, but few traces remain of the original structure. In 1447 the primitive fortress underwent bodied breakdowns by Fermo, which held in Acquaviva fundamental strategic interests. It was rebuilt in 1474 by Giovan Francesco Azzolino, and the work was directed by the Florentine Baccio Pontelli.Un more general restoration was made by Giuseppe Sacconi and was completed at the end of the nineteenth century. Research carried out since 2004 have enabled us to reconstruct the original image of the century fortress. In the Middle Ages it presented an octagonal tower and walls of considerable elevation with Ghibelline battlements. In the transition to the modern age, the introduction of firearms, the fortress was established thanks to the thickening of the walls and towers, the addition of a shoe triangular and strengthening outside of the keep that assumed cylindrical. In active defense they were created gunner and sharpshooter, as well as various galleries and Pusterle patrol. The fortress walls today has two orders: the first, vertical supports walkways and projecting projecting outward with the arches of the defense pouncing; the second, heavily sloped to bounce bullets, contains paths within casemates with cannons for firing small arms. The fortress, which is supposed to be surrounded by a moat, encompasses a wide central court served by a well. The plant is an irregular quadrilateral, culminating in a tower at each corner. The towers have different texture size and orography of the terrain and the risk of external attacks. This arrangement, top view, immediately recalls the symbol of a crossbow ready to shoot an arrow to the east, towards the sea. From that direction, in fact, it was the greatest danger. The main towers east (keep) and go west the center of gravity along the axis of symmetry of the rock, cutting the court into two triangles with each other very similar, whose remaining sides coincide with the perimeter walls. The cylindrical tower is 22 m high. The main tower located on the opposite side has guns, while the other two were for artillery light.