The imposing Swabian castle of Rocca Imperiale is on the top of the hill over which the whole residential area extends. The fortress was ordered by Frederic II of Swabia in 1221, and he ordered the construction or refurbishment of 200 castles for defensive purposes in southern Italy. The castle was built in a place of great military and strategic importance and surveillance extended to the whole of the Gulf of Taranto. The development of the residential area followed the construction of the castle, bringing in the people from a series of fortified settlements in the area. Many feudatory lords alternated in the government of the area, constantly under barbarian attack, in the following 200 years.
In 1664, the castle withstood the attack of 4000 Saracen pirates who devastated Rocca, destroying the old 13th century church in the old centre of which only the lovely Romanesque bell tower with mullioned windows and cornices remains. In 1989, the last heirs of the family owning the castle decided to donate it to the Municipality of Rocca Imperiale.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).