The evolution of Crotone Castle from a defensive assault to a full-scale flanking operation

• Autores: Tommaso Tedesco
• Localización: FORTMED 2026. Defensive Architecture of the Mediterranean Vol XXIII / Michele Russo (ed. lit.), Marta Acierno (ed. lit.), 2026, ISBN 978-84-1396-412-6, págs. 377-384
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Crotone Castle, a polygonal bastioned fortress, represents a unique typology, combining medieval, renaissance and modern structures-complexes that demonstrate the evolution of military architecture from precipitous defense to full flanking. It is also one of the few examples of a castle not perched atop a hill, but built around the hill it encompasses and encloses, on the fortifications of the Greek acropolis. Each fortification project referred to a specific form: pentagonal for the medieval fortifications, rectangular for the Aragonese and viceregal ones: complete geometries that included cylindrical towers at the vertices and, later, bastions. In some cases, architectural evidence is supported by documentary sources. Two curtain walls converging in the only remaining tower of the five, located at the vertices of an irregular pentagon, remain of the medieval layout, characterized by a plunging defense. Remains of another tower are still visible at the junction between a bastion and a curtain wall, while the base of a third tower protrudes from the current eastern curtain wall. The western side of the Castle is linear and symmetrical with respect to the entrance, reflecting the ʻtransitionalʼ fortified architecture, with the two Martinian towers (once covered) adorned with stone cordoning, corbels, and large battlements. The round-bore arquebusiers with vertical sights, which characterize the work of Francesco Di Giorgio Martini in the Montefeltro area, are distributed throughout the two levels of the towers and their respective curtain walls. The eastern side of the Castle, however, follows Gian Giacomo d’Acaja’s plan to create a bastioned front for the Castle, as well as for the surrounding walls. The fortress’s size and the difficulty in sourcing raw materials slowed down the construction of the Castle’s Regia Fabrica and prevented the completion of the fifteenth-century structure, and later the modern one, but it still represents a unique fortress.