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Rocca o Fortezza della Verruca - Pisa in Tuscany

Documents about settlements in the area date from 780, when the territory was defended by a stronghold that enjoyed a strategic position dominating the Arno River and its plain (at the time still marshy) as far as the sea. The fortress was a nearly impregnable stronghold for all the armies and powers that aimed at conquering and controlling the surrounding territory – 1288, struggle between Pisan Guelphs and Lucca army; 1328, invasion by Ludwig of Bavaria; 1363, Florentine invasion; 1369, invasion by Charles IV of Bohemia; 1375, invasion by John Hawkwood. At the beginning of the 15th century the Fortress of Verruca, the last bulwark of the Pisan Republic, was stormed and destroyed to prevent it from becoming a menace again. In 1503 Pisa rebelled against Florentine domination, and once more the war came to involve the Fortress of Verruca. That same year, on June 18, the Florentine troops recaptured the fortress after a prolonged and bloody fight, delivering the coup de grace to Pisa’s hope of independence – the city capitulated definitively to the Florentines six years later. The present appearance of the fortress is the result of reinforcement work carried out after the many wars.

The Verruca is regarded as a composite structure on account of the different phases it went through and the different architects who took care of its construction. The walls represent one of the few examples of bastions built of stones of different types in place of the classic bricks used at the time in military architecture. In view of the necessity to make this nerve-centre defendable, the fortress was visibly built hastily, with little care and without paying attention to proportions.The main front has a cylindrical tower at either end attributed to the architect Luca del Caprina. The main entrance is at the left end of the same front. The north-west bastion is attributed to Antonio da Sangallo. Within the enclosure there are a rock cropping out and a house falling into a state of decay.

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