, 1967 The current structure of Rocca Maggiore was built in 1316 and consists of two fortresses: the Major and the Minor. The first documented reference to the fortress dates back to 1173, when the German diplomat and Catholic archbishop
Christian of Mainz (1130–1183), chancellor of
Germany under Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa, occupied Assisi on behalf of the emperor, who stayed there for a short period. The young future
King of Sicily and
Holy Roman Emperor,
Frederick II, also resided in the fortress. He had been entrusted by his mother,
Costanza d'Altavilla, to the Duchess of Urslingen, the wife of
Corrado, Duke of Spoleto and
comes Assisi, a close confidant of the Swabian monarch. Empress Constance later returned to Sicily, but came back to Assisi accompanied by her husband,
Henry VI of Swabia. Their son was baptized at the
Cathedral of San Rufino and was given the auspicious name Frederick Roger, in honor of his two grandfathers. In 1198, the city came under the control of the
Guelphs loyal to
Pope Innocent III. The local population, in opposition to imperial rule, expelled the imperial legate and the young Frederick — who was only four years old — and inflicted extensive damage on the fortress. That same year,
Francis of Assisi was sixteen years old. The fortress was reconstructed in 1356 on the initiative of
Cardinal Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz (1310–1367), who had been commissioned by
Pope Innocent VI during the
Avignon Papacy to strengthen the fortifications of the
Papal States. In 1458, the
captain of
Perugia and Lord of Assisi,
Jacopo Piccinino (1423–1465), built the polygonal northwestern tower, which was later completed by
Pope Pius II. It was connected to the rest of the fortress by a fortified, defensible corridor. The complex consists of fortress walls built with the pink limestone of
Mount Subasio. The walls are trapezoidal in shape, with towers at each corner. Among these is a square
formwork structure, renovated in 1478 by
Pope Sixtus V, on which the keep now stands. The interior of the fortress—where, in 1972, several scenes from the film
Brother Sun, Sister Moon, directed by
Franco Zeffirelli, were shot—leads to the entrance of the round bastion, which was commissioned in 1535 by
Pope Paul III. A large enclosed courtyard contains former service rooms, as well as the
mole, the original core of / the castle, which is divided into four rooms accessible via a spiral staircase. The Rocca Maggiore is connected to its fortress Minor—also known as the stronghold or Keep of St. Anthony—via the fourteenth-century walls. This smaller stronghold was commissioned by Cardinal Albornoz to reinforce the fortifications on the mountainside. ==Gallery==