Rocca Aldobrandesca and Cassero Senese - Roccalbegna

Roccalbegna dominates the valley of the river Albegna at the slopes of mount Labbro, south of the Mount Amiata. It's about 11 kilometers far from Arcidosso, main center of the zone.

The small fortress of Roccalbegna crowns a rock, called simply 'sasso' (stone), that, from its sixty meters of altitude, overhangs the homonymous suburb. The village lies on the southern side of Mount Labbro at the confluence between the rivers Armancione and Albegna, a long-term strategic zone for control on the road that crosses the whole area of Mount Amiata that, at this point, gets narrow.

To have an exceptional panoramic view of the whole valley and the surrounding mountains, climb up to the top of the 'sasso' and lean out carefully from the ramparts of the medieval fortification. Its characteristic position of 'eagle's nest' makes its visit interesting, although the Rocca can be considered more of a great watchtower than a real fortress.

During the Middle Ages, the zone was under the dominion of the counts of the Aldobrandeschi family, and to them was owed the construction of the fortifications in the second half of the 13th century. The village was originally defended also by walls and by a keep with square form built on another small relief in front of the 'sasso'. This was the central nucleus of Roccalbegna, of which today only two towers and a line of the walled enclosure remain.

The fortress that has come almost intact to us was the small rocca, used only as a point of lookout and last shelter in case of the capitulation of the suburb. During the 14th century, the suburb experienced a period of great degradation that caused its almost total abandonment.

In 1455, the fortifications were readapted from the Senesi, but this only partly stopped the regressive trend of this area. With the defeat of the Senese Republic, at the mid-16th century, Roccalbegna passed to the Granduchy held up by Cosimo I de' Medici, but already in 1560 it was given in feud to the cardinal Antonio Sforza.

Thanks for part of the photos to Francesco Viti