The stellar-shaped fortification of Nicosia (Cyprus)

Between the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, military architecture underwent significant transformations. The use of the artillery and the progress of sciences occurred during the Renaissance period led to the introduction of new architectural forms and the consequent adoption of new building technologies. The main innovations were the replacement of the medieval squared towers with circular corner bastions, the lowering of the height of the fort constructions and the increase of the thickness of the defensive walls. The fortified walls of the city of Nicosia, built by the Venetians at the end of the sixteenth century, are to be considered among the first examples of the new way of constructing polygonal fortresses according to the changed requirements of the art of war. In 1570, the Venetians demolished and rebuild the medieval walls of the city in only eight months under the threat of the imminent invasion of the Ottomans. The new walls were designed by the Italian military engineer Giorgio Savorgnano according to the Renaissance ideal city with a stellar shape circumscribed in a circumference of a diameter of 7 km interrupted at regular intervals of 260 meters by eleven heart shaped bastions of the same size and form, outlining a regular hendecagon with eleven sides and eleven angles. The adoption of the circular lines of the walls and the shape at the heart of the ramparts provided a greater resistance to the fortification than those of the medieval type with squared lines, which made corner areas of the weakness points of the fortification. In spite of the numerous and bloody conflicts that have marked the history of Cyprus, the Venetian walls of Nicosia have been preserved until today and can be counted among the most beautiful monuments of the worldwide military architectural heritage. This work illustrates the preliminary experimental results of a research activity aimed at the study of construction technologies used by the Venetians for the construction of Nicosia fortress and at the characterization of the original materials, whose knowledge is a prerequisite for the design of restorations and maintenance of the architectural heritage.