magine a small fortress in the form of star overlooking the blue Tyrrhenian Sea, a nearly perfect building that it almost seems unreal, which, in reality, dates to the 1500s. This is Forte Stella, the fortification located in the municipality of Monte Argentario near Porto Ercole and which was built around the second the half of the 1500s by the Spanish.

To create the imposing structure, the Spanish turned to Cosimo I de’ Medici, who entrusted management of the work to the architects Bernardo Buontalenti and Giovanni Camerini. The project took a long time to be finished: Forte Stella was in fact completed only in the mid-1600s.
Forte Stella was used mostly as a watch tower and still today visitors can witness a breath-taking view from the site. The panorama spans the coast running from the southern bank of the Argentario to the Capo Linaro promontory near Civitavecchia.

In the past, communications using visual signals could be sent from Forte Stella to nearby towers and fortifications dotted along the whole Argentario promontory, constituting a practically impregnable defense system.

Today, visitors can go inside Forte Stella and walk along the wall’s raised walkways. The fortress also often hosts contemporary art exhibitions.

https://www.visittuscany.com

Forte Stella in Porto Ercole

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As its name suggests, this fortress was shaped by the Spanish in the late 16th century. It sits right in the heart of Porto Santo Stefano.

Climbing the stone steps up to the Fortezza Spagnola is like walking towards an Egyptian temple, as strange as that sounds. It truly has an ancient, powerful and indestructible vibe that comes from its stone clad walls.

The fortress was impenetrable, succeeding in keeping off enemy attack century after century. It was even used as a strategic garrison during both world wars.

Today the Fortezza Spagnola has undergone a series of renovations in an effort to restore it to its former glory.

Dedicated local craftsmen had to perfect old building techniques to recreate the terraces with their crowning turrets and reshape the long stone entry staircase, which once connected to a wooden drawbridge.

https://maremma-tuscany.com

 Fortezza Spagnola 

The Rocca Aldobrandesca di Talamone
the place to take your girl at sunset in Maremma
Imagine. It is June 1544 and you are stood on the ramparts of the Rocca Aldobrandesca di Talamone fortress. Watching. Waiting. For a vast Corsair pirate fleet that a Constantinople spy has told you is on its way to attack Maremma's coast and inland castles. Mercilessly. You know that they must be within a breaths distance. But you cannot see them.

You're a paid soldier and, plied over the last few days with provisions and wine to keep you in good humour, you have stayed at your post. Whilst others, due to take-up station within sight down the coast at Orbetello have taken the money and run. But now, in the light of day and with the gossip running amok, the full extent of the barbaric force approaching has become frighteningly clear.

Despite your advantageous position and the fortresses walls, you know your fate at the end of the day will be death. Or worse. Slaughtered by a sword. Or, if deemed fit and strong, silenced and shackled.
Imagine again. This time you are no more than a boy on the cusp of becoming a man. It's May 1860. You are stood with three hundred other men who have secretly gathered in the Rocca from across Tuscany. Waiting to volunteer to stand alongside and fight with Giuseppe Garibaldi on his epic journey south to Sicily in two stolen steam ships. A journey that will change the face of Italian history.

Some of the men next to you have only old muskets. But no gunpowder. You and many others have no arms at all. But you are wearing your thin "Red Shirt" that Garibaldi has given you with pride. In eight days you will face in battle twice your number of well equipped, trained military. And then an army eight times your size. There is apprehension as night falls but someone starts singing and you whisper sweet words of love into the air to your mother to sooth the lamenting image of her in your head.

https://www.maremmaguide.com

The Rocca Aldobrandesca di Talamone

Edificata nella parte più alta del Castello, la Rocca Aldobrandesca domina tutto il territorio ed il mare circostanti.

Antichissime le origini dell'insediamento: quest'altura è stata infatti abitata già dal tempo dei Villanoviani, poi dagli Etruschi, successivamente dai Romani e probabilmente l'uomo viveva questi luoghi in epoche ancora più remote delle quali ormai il tempo ha dissolto ogni traccia.

La posizione rendeva quest'altura particolarmente strategica perché adatta a controllare l'appropinquarsi delle flotte e dei navigli nemici, ideale per comunicare (con fuochi di notte e fumi di giorno) con la terra ferma e con le navi amiche e nemiche che veleggiavano per questi mari, vocata alla difesa, arroccata come è su un ripido sperone di roccia.

L'antica Rocca fu probabilmente edificata attorno al X-XI secolo, sopra i resti di manufatti più antichi. Infinite le vicissitudini militare e gli assalti pirateschi che hanno visto questa architettura fortificata ultimo baluardo difensivo per la gente dell'Isola del Giglio. Infiniti i restauri e le variazioni legate alle mutate esigenze difensive e distributive dei vari ambienti.

La Rocca era come un "piccolo mondo" che doveva poter essere autosufficiente: Oltre agli ambienti ad uso abitativo era infatti dotata di una profonda e capiente cisterna (in una parte della quale venivano tra l'altro allevate le anguille), di un ampio orto, di magazzini, di gallinajo e di piccionaja atte a garantire sostentamento e riparo in caso di prolungato assedio.