Rocchetta Sant'Antonio

The town was founded in 984 by the Normans, although these places, from the strategic position for the garrison of the river Ofanto, were already inhabited in Roman times. The small town was first called Oppidum Rocca, then Sant'Antimo in Rocca became the current Rocchetta Sant'Antonio.

The Fortress of Sant'Antimo was the name of the Norman/Byzantine fortification that dominated the city and whose name is known of the first feudatory, who lived there from 1081 to 1120, Roberto del Torpo. The original fortress dedicated to the martyr of Nicodemia was destroyed by the earthquake of 1456 and only ruins remain of it. In medieval times, after several changes of ownership, it became a fief of D'Aquino, whose Renaissance castle, the first building to rise outside the walls traced by the Byzantines, is the most imposing symbol of the village.

Ladislao II D'Aquino, Marquis of Corato, built in 1501, designed by the famous architect Francesco Di Giorgio Martini, this beautiful castle, characterized by three towers with an ogival plan, the shape of which resembles the bow of a ship that soars over the valley that to the south west of the village separates Puglia from Campania.

Rocchetta falls in love with the visitor at first glance, thanks to its steep alleys, its medieval buildings and Renaissance palaces, the order of the small peasant houses, all elements that contribute to create an atmosphere of collection and intense harmony, which earned her the Touring Club’s Orange Flag recognition. The old town is a picturesque maze of stone-paved streets, overlooked by other treasures, such as the eighteenth-century Mother Church of the Assumption, the Clock Tower, the nearby Seggio, the Belvedere of Casa Mattia.

From the village start the paths that lead to the surrounding natural areas, showing the wayfarer churches and convents rock, such as the Abbey of Santa Maria in Giuncarico, immersed in the Bosco dell'Annunziata, the ruins of a Roman building then transformed into a church, until you reach the Ofanto River.