Rocca del Albornoz (1359-70)

Cardinal Gil Albornoz built this fortress at the summit of the Colle di Sant' Elia soon after he had regained papal control of Spoleto in 1354.  It was intended to protect and control Via Flaminia and also to provide a residence for the papal governors of the Duchy of Spoleto. 

• Construction seems to have started in 1359. 
  

• In 1362, Cardinal Albornoz nominated Matteo di Giovannello, il Gattapone as “offitialeni et suprastantem fabbrice rocche”. 
  

• The first papal castellan, the Spaniard Pedro Consalvo, was appointed in 1367, a few months after Cardinal Albornoz died. 
  

• The last recorded payment to il Gattapone was made in 1370.

In 1383, Rinaldo Orsini took Spoleto for the anti-Pope Clement VII after laying siege to the Rocca for 4 months. He was a close ally of Cardinal Pietro Pileo da Prato, the legate of the antipope Clement VII.   In 1384, he rebuffed an attempt by John Hawkwood to retake the city for Pope Urban VI.  However, he lost popular support in Spoleto after the election of Pope Boniface IX in 1389.  He was murdered in Aquila in 1391, and St Peter Martyr subsequently intervened posthumously to ensure a Guelf victory over the Ghibellines at the Ponte delle Torre. 

Pope Boniface IX then appointed his brother, Marino Tomacelli as papal governor, a position that he held for 24 years (1392 – 1416).  Under his rule, Spoleto repulsed attacks by Biordo Michelotti (1390s), King Ladislas of Naples (1414) and Braccio Fortebracci (1419). 

On the last occasion, Braccio was welcomed by the people and lodged his soldiers at SS Simone e Giuda while he laid siege to the Rocca.  However, he was wounded in the leg and forced to retire, leaving a garrison in the city.  He returned after a month and managed to take the Torre di San Marco (later called the Torre di Baccio) in the outer circuit of the city walls.  However, he ultimately failed to take the Rocca.

Pope Eugenius IV appointed Pirro Tomacelli, the Abbot of Monte Cassino, as papal governor of Spoleto in 1433.  Tomacelli was hated to such an extent that the people besieged him in the Rocca in 1437.  He summoned help from Corrado Trinci and Francesco Piccinino, and when they were unable to break the siege, they contented themselves by sacking the city.  Eugenius IV realised his mistake and sent forces to remove Tomacelli by force.  The action was halted when Tomacelli reached an accord with the Spoletini and with the papal representative, Amoretto Condulmer.  Francisco Piccinino withdrew to sack the contado of Assisi, but hostilities resumed when he returned with troops from Norcia, Bevagna and Montefalco.  He subjected Spoleto to savage reprisals and then returned it to Pirro Tomacelli, while some 400 prisoners and extensive booty were taken to Foligno.

This spurred Pope Eugenius IV into action.  His legate Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi defeated Corrado Trinci and took Foligno in 1439, before turning his attention to Spoleto.  Tomacelli, who was now devoid of allies, held out in the Rocca for a few months and then offered to leave in return for money.  However, he showed bad faith and the Rocca was finally taken by force.  Tomacelli was captured and taken to Rome, where he died.  His sister and other women who had been with him when the Rocca fell were left in the hands of the victorious soldiers. 

Cardinal Filippo Calandrini, the half brother of Pope Nicholas V, was castellan of the Rocca from 1477.   Andreola Tomeo dei Bosi, their mother died here in 1451 and was buried in the Duomo.  Pope Nicholas V, who stayed with his family here in 1449 during an outbreak of plague in Rome, employed Bernardo Rossellino to enlarge and strengthen the Rocca.  According to Giorgio Vasari, Rossellino made  "within it dwellings so beautiful, so commodious and so well-conceived that nothing better could be seen".  Pope Pius II further restored the papal apartments during his stay in 1459.

When Spoleto revolted against Pope Sixtus IV in 1474, he sent his nephew, Giuliano della Rovere (the future Pope Julius II) together with  Giulio Cesare Varano da Camerino and Braccio di Malatesta Baglioni to retake the city.  

Lucrezia Borgia was made Governor of Spoleto in 1499-1502, during which ti she lived in the Rocca.

The Rocca lost its strategic importance from the 16th century.  The Palazzo Apostolico was moved into the city in 1764 and the Rocca became simply a barracks.  It was adapted for use as a prison in the 1817. 

On 17th September, 1860, the Piedmontese troops of General Filippo Brignone took the Rocca.   (Among the vastly out-numbered papal forces there was a contingent of 327 Irish volunteers led by Major Myles O'Reilly and Captain John Joseph Coppinger).  Spoleto then became part of the new Kingdom of Italy. 

Benito Mussolini used the prison at the Rocca for political prisoners.  A brigade of partisans managed to arrange for a number of them to escape in October 1943 and they formed the nucleus of the local Anti-Facist resistance movement.  An inscription near the entrance to the Rocca (see Walk I) commemorates these events.

The prison, which reverted to civil use afterthe Second World War, was finally closed in 1982.  The Rocca has recently been restored and part of it now houses the Museo Nazionale del Ducato di Spoleto.

Proceed to the tour of the Rocca.

Return to Walk I.