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Military engineers and the fortification of Split in the 17th century

In the second half of 17th century the City of Split was fortified in three different stages – from the covered way system (strade coperte), followed by the redan system (mezzalune) and finally, the bastion fortress in the form of half of a regular heptagon. The period of fortifying Split corresponds to the War of Candia (1645—1669) between the Venetians and the Turks. Those extensive works were designed and their construction supervised by a number of military engineers, mainly Italian and French. Most of them, including Don Innocetio Conti, the designer of the Split bastion fortress, had important warfare experience from various European battlefields. Filippo Besseti Verneda supervised the construction of the bastion system and left several very detailed documents with precise descriptions of all the elements related to its construction. Other military engineers just analysed the actual state of the fortifications of Split, and some of them proposed solutions to improve it. An outstanding figure among them was Antoine de Ville, a famous French military engineer, the author of some of the most important theoretical books on fortification and the art of warfare of the 17th century. The experience and importance of the military engineers who were engaged on the Split fortifications speaks of the priority and attention that Venice devoted to these works.

Military engineers, Fortifications, 17th century, Split

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