Castle
Rocca bizantina di Serre
RAPOLANO TERME
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The fortress of Byzantine construction, constitutes the oldest nucleus of the village of Serre. The base of the fortress rises on a spur of natural rock, worked by the Byzantine engineers until it becomes an ellipse 40 by 60 meters of base.
The rock was then covered with a wall equipped with a shoe base, in squared travertine boulders arranged in a row. Under the fortress is the famous Climb of the Poor, a natural streak of the road that directly connected Siena and Arezzo: the strategic position of the fortress, which could easily block the connection between the two cities, made it highly coveted on a strategic level.
The ellipse of the fortress has a spiral shape in order to allow access to the wagons through an easily passable ramp.
At the time of its construction, the fortress was accessible through a single vehicle door, located in the middle of the access ramp, a place called: Il Cancello.
Leaning against the surrounding wall at the top of the fortress stands the Cassero, a habitable building that was the home of the imperial castellans and later of the Cacciaconti. The medieval furniture and part of the original structure disappeared following the transformation of the building into an embankment used as a garden of the nineteenth-century Gori-Martini palace.
Today the Rocca has been transformed into a luxurious period residence.
The fortress of Byzantine construction, constitutes the oldest nucleus of the village of Serre. The base of the fortress rises on a spur of natural rock, worked by the Byzantine engineers until it becomes an ellipse 40 by 60 meters of base.
The rock was then covered with a wall equipped with a shoe base, in squared travertine boulders arranged in a row. Under the fortress is the famous Climb of the Poor, a natural streak of the road that directly connected Siena and Arezzo: the strategic position of the fortress, which could easily block the connection between the two cities, made it highly coveted on a strategic level.
The ellipse of the fortress has a spiral shape in order to allow access to the wagons through an easily passable ramp.
At the time of its construction, the fortress was accessible through a single vehicle door, located in the middle of the access ramp, a place called: Il Cancello.
Leaning against the surrounding wall at the top of the fortress stands the Cassero, a habitable building that was the home of the imperial castellans and later of the Cacciaconti. The medieval furniture and part of the original structure disappeared following the transformation of the building into an embankment used as a garden of the nineteenth-century Gori-Martini palace.
Today the Rocca has been transformed into a luxurious period residence.