Roccatamburo rises on a crag that falls steeply on three sides, in the municipality of Poggiodomo.

The access road from above leads to a slight descent towards the town centre perched compactly around the parish church.

Two paths descend a very steep slope towards the valley to reach the Sanctuary of Madonna della Stella. The first is lined only with cowsheds and hay lofts on top of each other as described in Usigni. The primitive nucleus has recently been replaced without any organic criteria or formal unity which has compromised the original environment. An ogival, 5-metre high portal that must have been an entrance to the castle has been blocked up and almost cut in half by a new building. Further back the buildings become more scattered. Here too buildings have been replaced.

The intense activity of rebuilding in recent years (and documented by the improper use of “bolognini”, tuff and cement plaster) was propitiated by a regional intervention, the first and only one of its kind in favour of places hit by the earthquake. The chance to use a detailed plan to tackle the problems of consolidation and restructuring of the entire town centre without losing the effectiveness of intervention in solving single situations was lost.

The huts still standing on the sides of the access road to the town are an emblematic reminder of the inadequate solutions provided by the State when faced with “natural disasters”.