The fortress
The Rocca Aldobrandesca of Porto Ercole was originally built for the Tre Fontane Abbey. The Aldobrandeschi only got their hands on it in the 13th century. They expanded it from a humble castle to a massive fort and renamed it while they were at it!
When Porto Ercole fell to Siena, the fortress was restored and refined into the beautiful building you see today. In 1487 the military engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini made the fort even stronger and more impenetrable, adding a moat around the walls and a chapel in the courtyard.
In the second half of the 16th century, the entire area became part of the Spanish Presidi State and the fortress was once again strengthened by external bastions, watchtowers and underground tunnels which connected it to the Governor's Palace.
The fortress was sold privately after World War II. The new owners turned it into residential apartments. American writer Robert Penn Warren lived in the fortress from 1954 to 1956 and supposedly wrote poetry here that won him a Pulitzer Prize.
Today the fortress has the shape of an irregular star surrounded by a thick stone wall. The four bastions in each corner of the castle are still visible, one of which was converted into a lighthouse in 1862.
The main entrance is still preceded by a wooden drawbridge and in the internal courtyard there are a series of buildings, a powder magazine, a first aid centre, two watchtowers and the ancient chapel.
The fortress is not normally open to visitors, but can be opened upon request, so visit the tourist information center in Piazza Roma.
