Castle of Rocca Calascio

{{short description|Mountaintop fortress in Abruzzo, Italy}}

{{infobox military structure

|name = Castle of Rocca Calascio

|native_name = Castello di Rocca Calascio

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|image = Rocca Calascio 06 2023.jpg

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|map= {{Infobox mapframe |id=Q1166100 |zoom=12}}

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|type = Fortress

|coordinates = {{coord|42.328967|13.688944|type:landmark|display=inline}}

|code =

|built = 10th century

|builder =

|materials = stone and masonry

|height =

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|demolished =

|condition = Partially ruinous

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The Castle of Rocca Calascio is a mountaintop fortress or rocca in the municipality of Calascio, in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy.

At an elevation of around {{convert|1460|m}}, the castle is the highest fortress in the Apennines. Built of stone and masonry exclusively for military purposes and intended only to accommodate troops and never as a residence for nobles, the fortress overlooks the Plain of Navelli at one of the highest points in the ancient Barony of Carapelle.

Construction of the fortress started in the tenth century as a single 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 November 1461 by the 1461 L'Aquila earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7 to 8 on the Richter Scale.[http://www.seismosoc.org/publications/SRL/SRL_80/srl_80-6_hs/index.html Historical Seismologist, November/December 2009, L’Aquila (Central Italy) Earthquakes:The Predecessors of the April 6, 2009 Event, Andrea Tertulliani, Antonio Rossi, Luigi Cucci, and Maurizio Vecchi. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy] While the town of Calascio, which lies below the fortress, was rebuilt, the fortress was not.{{Cite web |url=http://www.calascio.com/histcal5.htm |title=Calascio Today by Silvio Germano, translation by Paul Zelus and Alex Frasco |access-date=2007-10-11 |archive-date=2008-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011014839/http://www.calascio.com/histcal5.htm |url-status=dead }}

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