Rock Pia - Tivoli (Italy)

Rocca Pia is the historic symbol of Tivoli which stands a few steps away from the modern Piazza Garibaldi and from the sculpture of Arnoldo Pomodoro.

Built by Pope Pius II Piccolomini around 1461 on the top of a small hill, both to control the city from above, and to avoid any popular uprisings. The fortress has a quadrangular structure with four circular towers of different heights, where the highest reaches 36.50 meters and is leveled adjacent to the Roman amphitheater dating from the 2nd century AD, also known as the Bleso Amphitheater.
Accessible in the past through a drawbridge, the Rocca Pia in the nineteenth century was also used as a district prison, and remained so until 1960.