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The Senigallia’s fortress s also called “Rocca Roveresca” from the customers’ name: ”Della Rovere”; it is situated in Senigallia, in the Marche region, and it’s one of the most important landmarks the city and of the region and it hosts exhibitions, musical and artistic events. In 2015 it was seen by 46090 visitors.

History

The fortress is the result of an evolutionary process occurring during the centuries. The landmark is composed by two fortress, one enclosed in the other: the central part is surrounded by the building developed for defence purposes. The defence tower is from the roman period, when the cardinal Albornoz ordered the Rocca Roveresca to be built in the XIV century, and in the XV century there was the intervention of the pope. During the roman colonization roman settlers wanted to defend the city from attacks from the sea, so they built a defence tower between the city and the sea. The first building includes an only tower with a square base and it’s made up of blocks of sandstone and tuff, which is enclosed by a medieval tower, made up of limestone. In 1350, after the change of the papal residence from Avignone to Rome, the Spanish archbishop Albornoz was in charge of increasing the power of the church in central Italy, so he ordered to build many fortresses, like the one in Senigallia. In 1379, when the "Malatesta" obtained the territories of Senigallia, they continued the work started by Albornoz. There were two important moments for the city: the Sigismond and the Della Rovere’s lordship(1474-1631). Giovanni” Della Rovere” decided to build monuments to develop the city and to repopulate it, which was depopulated because of the swamps. In this period The “Rocca Roveresca” was expanded. Sigismond’s absence from the city increased the citizens’ dissatisfaction; so citizens welcomed the “Della Rovere”. The current structure is due to Giovanni “Della Rovere”. In fact he was able to marry his grandchildrens with important personalities. The pope grant the territories of Senigallia to Giovanni. The new lord of Senigallia had to face problems like the reclamation or the defence. Luciano Laurana was charged of the works in 1478. The architect designed the living quarters of the stronghold and of the drawbridge. After Laurana’s death Baccio Pontelli was called. The central part of the fortress was surrounded by a new defensive structure, with a square plan. The fortress was built in only two years. Inside and outside , in the architraves it is possible to read ”IOANNES DUX” and “IOANNES PRAEFECTUS”. The monument was damaged because of the earthquake in 1987 and in 1930. Initially It was used like a prison ,in fact there are prisoners’ writings and draws on the walls. Than it was rented by the nuns as a “shelter for abandoned children”. Later it was used like a storage of furrow until the aftermath of the Second World War. So after the nuns left it was used like military storehouse, storage and firehouse, seat of the fascism and municipal library. So it starts to be used to cultural purposes. In 1947 the municipality offered the stronghold to be used like a library or a picture gallery. In 60’s a committee was formed to open the monuments at the public. Nowadays the “Rocca Roveresca” is open to the public and testifies the story of the city.

Description

The Rocca Roveresca shows from outside a basic and regular structure due to Baccio Pontelli’s project which enclosed the noble residence with a quadrilateral wall at whose angles there are four low round towers, connected between them and with the central body with an organic system of connections, vertical and horizontal. The internal spaces and routes illusory irregularity is a characteristic of the modern fortifications wanted by Pontelli, in order to create a sense of disorientation. The structure complexity, also due to historical and design stratifications, manifests therefor inside where the spaces relocation proves to be labyrinthine. The courtyard had the double use of barracks and courtyard with a typical Renaissance decentralizated little well and It is a functional connecting element between the entrance from the outside, which is accessed through the drawbridge and between the residential and military parts.

Courtyard

The Aforementioned courtyard appears typically fifteenth-century, however it conserves clear traces of the previous buildings and allows the interpretation of the four principal phases experienced by the fortress. In front of the main entrance we can see one wall of the tower on which all the architectural events of the fortress are legible: from the Roman base, to the continuation of the fourteenth-century Rocchetta, due to the work of Cardinal Albornoz around 1350, to the first fifteenth-century fortress, built a century later by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, to the signs of the Roverese age. This part of the Fortress, the result of many changes over time, clearly indicates that the area on which it stands has always been considered a strategic point of the city for the construction of a fortification that constituted the fulcrum of the defense works. The wall with the arches which can be seen on the right side of the courtyard is part of the fourteenth-century curtain, they were reinforced when it was necessary to enlarge the section of the defensive wall to create displacement plans for the artillery, in masonry, which replaced the wooden walkways. The water collection cistern, located next to the fifteenth century cockpit, dates back to the fourteenth century. It is circular with a slightly pinecone vertical shape. Its position of particular beauty and functionality allows us to affirm that over the centuries the present courtyard was always destined to free space, more or less wide, surrounded by defensive walls. A similar thing can be said about the entrance: in all the buildings it has maintained the same position, as shown by the progress of the defensive walls of the previous fortresses.

Fortified Towers

At the top of the main structure there are four round fortified towers as it was typical of the transition period at the end of the fifteenth century. The succession of buildings reveals that the most threatening dangers for Senigallia at the end of the fifteenth century were considered those that could have come from the sea, a fact that was particularly true in the periods of construction of the roveresque fortress, when the incursions of the Turks threatened the entire Adriatic coast. The fortified towers, despite the appearances, are all of different sizes and, if you go around the terrace, you can see that they were built to defend the central body of the fortress. Through the glass of the structure placed to defend the restoration work, we can see the battlements of the first fifteenth century fortress and the architectural structures that allowed the mobility of the drawbridge. Looking out from one of the towers at the sea, it is possible to better imagine the defensive potential of the fortress. Its massive structure was surrounded by a ditch full of water, whose entry was regulated by a system of doors and contained by a wall. All around the terrace are visible troniers with the inscription" IO DUX –IO PRE" and, outside, the magnificent crowning of corbels in white Istrian stone which constitutes a pleasant contrast with the brick used for the entire construction.

Internal rooms

As for the internal structure, the residential area is on three levels, served by a two-ramp staircase, with access from the inner courtyard. The lower level was used as a garrison and as housing for the militia officers responsible for the defense of the fortress. The upper rooms (three living rooms) were reserved for representation and the Duke's residence. The rooms on the terrace floor is part of the area designated by Giovanni Della Rovere as the residence of his court in times of emergency. The place became a chapel, presumably in the papal era, when the fortress was used as a prison. The granary was a service area of the residential area, characterized by the presence of a large reservoir probably intended to contain the grain necessary for supplies to those who resided in the fortress particularly in case of siege.

The Basaments

In the basement, cells for prisoners are located in a quadrangular room. These narrow prisons were derived from places that were probably originally structured to be gunboats. They are real cells of death, as can be seen from the small windows that allowed, more than survival, a slow agony. It’s not possible to specify when the transformation of the gunboats into cells occurred, probably when the fortress was used as a prison. From the path to access the upper floor you can see the ancient Roman defensive tower built with spongy limestone worked in large rectangular ashlar blocks, some of which corroded, because the tower was incorporated in subsequent renovations that protected it against the corrosive action of atmospheric agents. To connect these spaces, a beautiful spiral staircase was built but it was never used. Entirely made of white Istrian stone, it is certainly the most valuable piece of the structure.

Bibliography

• Marinella Bonvini Mazzanti, Poetere e "res aedificatoria". Storia di piazza e palazzo del duca a Senigallia, Tecnostampa edizioni, 1996.

• Marinella Bonvini Mazzanti, Senigallia, QuattroVenti edizioni, 1998.

• Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali, I Della Rovere e la Rocca di Senigallia tra storia e restauro, grafica Nanni, 1995.

• Giorgio Domenici, Ettore Guglielmi, Luciano Lunazzi, Gianfranco Nardinocchi, Fausto Pugnaloni, Silvia Sterlini, Paolo Taus e Marcello Agostinelli, Emergenze, vuoti, limiti della città storica Senigallia, CLUA, 1989.

• Ministero dei beni culturali e ambientali, La Rocca Roveresca.