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Rocca di Pietracassia - Pisa in Tuscany

The mighty fortress stands on a hillside between the Sterza and Foscia streams, at an altitude of 550 metres above sea level. It dominates the Era River Valley and, in part, the Cecina River Valley. The building rests on a huge boulder which makes the northern slope impregnable. A crack on the boulder gives it its name of “pietra cassa”, i.e. broken stone. The fortress is mentioned in a 1028 document dealing with an exchange of lands and castles. In 1115 the fortress and other castles in the Era River Valley were willed to Ruggero, bishop of Volterra, by Count Ugo Pannocchieschi. In 1202 the Pisans captured many castles in the Era River Valley, including Pietracassia, which remained in their possession until 1286, when it was returned to Volterra under the Villamagna agreement. After many vicissitudes between Pisa and Volterra, in 1405 the traitor Pietro Gaetani handed over Pietracassia and other castles in the Era River Valley to the Florentines for an ample reward.

At the time the castle enclosed a small church dedicated to St Bartholomew. In 1434 Florence dismantled the castles of Pietracassia, Orciatico and Lajatico in retaliation for their rebellions. Since that year the fortress would be remembered only as a tenement of the Spedaletto Estate. Today the fortress is half-destroyed, but what remains attests to its past splendour. The oldest part consists of the sighting tower, while the perimeter wall, dating from the 8th century, surrounds the castle only on three sides. The only access is along a 45-metre wall with no openings or loopholes and is raised in relation to the base to allow it to be walled up in case of siege. At one end of the wall are two towers which differ in shape: one is massive and heptagonal in plan; the other is slender and four-sided.

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