La fortificazione di Crotone. Storia e trasformazione del complesso militare attraverso le fonti d’archivio e cartograiche (XVI-XX sec.) | The fortification of Crotone. History and transformations of a military complex through the study of archival and cartographic sources (16th-20th centuries)

The fortification of Crotone, in Calabria, was a keystone of the coastal defensive system built by the Spanish during the Viceregno. The fortification’s architectural arrangement was defined in 16th century. The design and construction of the complex, which included renovation of the castle and construction of the city walls, were commissioned to Gian Giacomo of Acaya and Ambrogio Attendolo, well-known military technicians. Therefore, following the utmost innovative theories on military architecture, the fortress was updated with the system of a bastioned front. The renovations were protracted for some decades, as the archive collection of Spanish and Neapolitan administrations reveals. From that moment, the castle and the bastioned city walls became symbols of Crotone, as several views and cartographies show.The gradual decline of defensive functions and the abolition of military servitudes encouraged the consequent process of dismantling of part of the city walls and of the castle, altering the identity, which was consolidated over time. From the nineteenth-century, the new city has progressively encircled the historical city centre, ‘corroding’ part of the sixteenth-century city walls.The process of dismantling part of the defensive system, according to the common idea of urban walls as a limit to the expansion of the city, justified the partial demolition of the ancient structures.However, in the case of Crotone, some important traces of the fortification, even if severely transformed, are still evident and some areas have been reused for public functions.