Venetian defence systems in the 16th and 17th centuries: Stato da Terra and Stato da Mar make up a transnational set of heritage sites presented by Italy along with Croatia and Montenegro. The site is an exceptional collection of the most representative defence systems “alla moderna” (meaning “modern” in Italian, often referred to today as “trace Italienne”, bastion forts or star forts) built by the Republic of Venice, designed after the discovery of gunpowder and spread out along the Stato da Terra (mainland domains) and the Stato da Mare (those along the Adriatic coast).
The World Heritage Committee has added the defensive walls in Italy’s Bergamo, Palmanova (Udine), Peschiera del Garda (Verona), Croatia’s Zara and Sibenik, and Montenegro’s Kotor to the list of UNESCO heritage sites.
[expand title=”Bergamo”]
The upper city is surrounded by walls, a masterpiece of military engineering built by the Venetians during their domination of Lombardy in the 1500s. The city walls of Bergamo, created for political motives and never actually used for defence, stand like a giant fortress with bastions, equipped with escape routes and roads for supplies, cannon stations, halls for troops and armouries.[/expand]
[expand title=”Peschiera”]
Located on Lake Garda, for centuries Peschiera was a military stronghold. Over time, it became a formidable war machine: in the 1500s the Venetians built the small fort, or rather a fortified castle, in the shape of a pentagon. It was then expanded by Napoleon and the Austrians, who reinforced the system with seven fortresses. At the time, Peschiera was part of the Quadrilatero: along with Verona, Legnago and Mantua, it was meant to protect the valley of the Adige River and the road to Austria.[/expand]
[expand title=”Palmanova”]
Over the ages, Palmanova has maintained its nine-pointed star shape within which is a regular nonagon with a series of interior ring roads and a hexagonal town square. This fortress city was built by the Venetian state as an eastern defence city, though it never actually held a particularly important role in that respect. Today, it’s one of the best-preserved examples of military architecture and the idea of an ideal city of the Renaissance.[/expand]