Castello Svevo of Rocca Imperiale, 13th-century Swabian castle in Rocca Imperiale, Italy.

The Castello Svevo of Rocca Imperiale is a quadrilateral fortress with eight towers, five of them round, enclosed by crenellated walls and a moat eight metres deep but narrow. The original 13th-century core, attributed to Frederick II, survives in a tower, the entrance portal, an ogival sandstone window and loopholes; the keep, polygonal maschio and towers date from Alfonso II of Aragon's 1487 enlargement.

Frederick II of Swabia founded the castle around 1225–1240 as a stopover on his journeys to and from Sicily and to strengthen his power over the territory. In 1487 Alfonso II of Aragon expanded it, adding the keep, the polygonal tower and eight towers. In 1644, between 29 June and 1 July, the castle sheltered inhabitants during a Turkish attack and was not captured.

The name Rocca Imperiale comes from Frederick II, who founded the castle; the original core had a single square tower. The moat, eight metres deep but narrow, trapped attackers who breached the outer walls, as happened when Turkish raiders attacked between 29 June and 1 July 1644 and the castle was not taken. Inside, a room called the "sala dei supplizi" has an iron ring in the ceiling, thought to have been used for torture.

The west side is protected by a deep ravine, so the built defences face the other sides: an eight-metre-deep but narrow moat crossed by two drawbridges, plus a wall circuit that once linked to the village walls at the Murorotto, the Croce, the Ospedale and the Scalella cliff. The entrance portal and the sandstone ogival window are among the few surviving 13th-century elements to look for.

The moat is eight metres deep but deliberately narrow: an attacker who crossed both the village walls and the castle wall would be trapped below, unable to manoeuvre and exposed to fire from the defenders. The two drawbridges completed the trap. The design was tested in 1644, when Turkish raiders attacked the village between 29 June and 1 July and the castle was never taken.