Medieval hamlet reborn: The revival of an abandoned Italian village

Cagnoli is the caretaker of the Rocca Calascio castle that was featured in the 1985 movie, Ladyhawke. — Photos: Reuters

When the sun comes up over the castle of Rocca Calascio, a mountain hamlet high up in the central Italian Apennines, it is like a silent, red thunder.

One such sunrise struck Franco Cagnoli with an almost spiritual calling that led him on a personal mission to revive the medieval village that had been abandoned in 1957.