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Bourtange fortification, restored to 1750 situation, Groningen, Netherlands

A Star Fort is a fortification in the style that evolved during the "Age of Blackpowder" when cannon came to dominate the battlefield. Passive ring-shaped (enceinte) fortifications of the medieval era proved vulnerable to damage or destruction by cannonfire, when it could be directed from outside against a perpendicular masonry wall. Star fortifications were developed by Filarete in the mid-fifteenth century, employed by Michelangelo in the defensive earthworks of Florence, refined in the sixteenth century by Baldassare Peruzzi and Scamozzi and brought to final statements by Louis XIV's military engineer, Vauban. In the nineteenth century the development of the exploding shell changed the nature of defensive fortifications. Image File history File links Mergefrom. ... Olomouc bastion fortress in Czech Republic in 1757 Bourtange bastion fortress in Groningen in Netherland plan of bastion fortress (in Finnish) The bastion fortress was once a very modern type of fortress. ... Image File history File links Mergefrom. ... The trace italienne is a style of fortification that was developed in Italy in the late 15th and early 16th century in response, primarily to the French invasion of the Italian peninsula. ... Fortification Bourtange, Groningen province, Netherlands. ... Fortification Bourtange, Groningen province, Netherlands. ... Bourtange is a Dutch star fort and village in the Westerwolde region of the province of Groningen. ... Events March 2 - Small earthquake in London, England April 4 - Small earthquake in Warrington, England August 23 - Small earthquake in Spalding, England September 30 - Small earthquake in Northampton, England November 16 – Westminster Bridge officially opened Jonas Hanway is the first Englishman to use an umbrella James Gray reveals her sex... The flag of Groningen Groningen is the northeast province of the Netherlands with a typical dialect (Gronings) with regional nuances. ... Table of Fortification, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Black powder is a type of gunpowder invented in the 9th Century and practically the only propellant and explosive known until the middle of the 19th Century. ... For other uses, see Cannon (disambiguation). ... Generally, a battle is an instance of combat in warfare between two or more parties wherein each group will seek to defeat the others. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Antonio di Pietro Averlino (c. ... For other uses, see Michelangelo (disambiguation). ... This article is about the city in Italy. ... Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481—6 January 1537) was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena and died in Rome. ... Vincenzo Scamozzi Vincenzo Scamozzi (September 2, 1548 - August 7, 1616) born in Vicenza, Italy, was an architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. ... “Louis XIV” redirects here. ... Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban (May 15, 1633 - March 30, 1707), commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and in breaking through them. ...

The star-shaped fortification had a formative influence on the patterning of the Renaissance ideal city: "The Renaissance was hypnotized by one city type which for a century and a half— from Filarete to Scamozzi— was impressed upon all utopian schemes: this is the star-shaped city"^[1] Urban planning is concerned with the ordering and design of settlements, from the smallest towns to the worlds largest cities. ...

Origins

When the newly effective maneuverable siege cannon came into military strategy in the fifteenth century, the response from military engineers was to arrange for the walls to be embedded into ditches fronted by earth slopes so that they could not be attacked by direct fire, which is by far the most destructive, and to have the walls topped by earth banks that absorbed and largely dissipated the energy of plunging fire. Where conditions allow, as in Fort Manoel in Malta, the "ditches" are cut into the native rock, and the "wall" at the inside of the ditch is simply unquarried native rock. As the walls became lower, they also became more vulnerable to assault. A military engineer is primarily responsible for the design and construction of offensive, defensive and logistical structures for warfare. ... Indirect fire is a characteristic unique to artillery in which the fire is adjusted out of sight of the guns. ... Plunging fire is gunfire directed upon an enemy from an elevated position or gunfire aimed so as to fall on an enemy from above. ... Fort Monoel is a fortification on the island of Malta. ...

Ideal fortified city: Neuhäuse (Nové Zámky, Lower Hungary (modern Slovakia), circa 1680

Worse yet, the rounded shape that had previously been dominant for the design of turrets created "dead space" which was relatively sheltered from defending fire, because direct fire from other parts of the walls could not be shot around the curved wall. To prevent this what had previously been round or square turrets were extended into diamond shaped points which would give storming infantry no shelter. The ditches and walls channel attacking troops into carefully constructed killing grounds where defensive cannon can wreak havoc on troops attempting to storm the walls, with emplacements set so that the attacking troops have no place to shelter from the defensive fire. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 693 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2288 × 1980 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 693 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2288 × 1980 pixel, file size: 1. ... Nové Zámky (in German: Neuhäusl or Neuhäusel, in Hungarian: Érsekújvár, in Turkish: Uyvar) is a town in southwestern Slovakia. ...

A further and more subtle change was to move from a passive model of defence to an active one. The lower walls were more vulnerable to being stormed, and the protection that the earth banking provided against direct fire failed if the attackers could occupy the slope on the outside of the ditch, and mount attacking cannon there. Therefore the shape was designed to make maximum use of enfilade (or "flanking") fire against any attackers who should reach the base of any of the walls. The indentations in the base of each point on the star sheltered cannon located there. Those cannon would have a clear line of fire directly down the edge of the neighboring points, while their point of the star was protected by fire from the base of those points. Enfilade and defilade are military tactical concepts used to describe a fighting units exposure to enemy fire. ...

Thus forts evolved complex shapes that allowed defensive batteries of cannon to command interlocking fields of fire. Forward batteries commanded the slopes which defended walls deeper in the complex from direct fire. The defending cannon were not simply intended to deal with attempts to storm the walls, but to actively challenge attacking cannon, and deny them approach close enough to the fort to engage in direct fire against the vulnerable walls. Fields of Fire, for the 1978 book by James H. Webb. ... Remains of a battery of English cannon from Youghal, County Cork. ...

The key to the fort's defense moved to the outer edge of the ditch surrounding the fort, known as the covered way, or covert way. Defenders could move relatively safely in the cover of the ditch, and could engage in active counter measures to keep control of the glacis, the open slope that lay outside the ditch, by creating defensive earthworks to deny the enemy access to the glacis and thus to firing points that could bear directly on to the walls, and by digging counter mines to intercept and disrupt attempts to mine the fort walls. A glacis, in military engineering (see Fortification and Siege) is an artificial slope of earth in the front of works, so constructed as to keep an assailant under the fire of the defenders to the last possible moment. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Undermining. ...

Compared to medieval fortifications, forts became both lower and larger in area, providing defence in depth, with tiers of defences that an attacker needed to overcome in order to bring cannon to bear on the inner layers of defences. Medieval fortification is the military aspect of Medieval technology that covers the development of fortification construction and use in Europe roughly from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance. ... It has been suggested that Deep defence be merged into this article or section. ...

Firing emplacements for defending cannon were heavily defended from bombardment by external fire, but open towards the inside of the fort, both to diminish their usefulness to the attacker should they be overcome, but also to allow the large volumes of smoke that the defending cannon would generate to dissipate.

Fortifications of this type continued to be effective while the attackers were armed only with cannon, where the majority of the damage inflicted is caused by momentum from the impact of solid shot. While only low explosives such as blackpowder were available, explosive shells were largely ineffective against such fortifications.

The development of mortars, high explosives, and the consequent large increase in the destructive power of explosive shells and thus plunging fire rendered the intricate geometry of such fortifications irrelevant. US soldier loading a M224 60-mm mortar. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... A shell is a projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large solid projectiles previously termed shot (AP, APCR, APCNR, APDS, APFSDS and Proof shot). ...

Notes

Sigfried Giedon (April 14, 1888, Prague – April 10, 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemia-born Swiss historian of architecture, and critic for architecture. ...

See also

• Bastion fortress
• Castillo de San Marcos
• Castle of Good Hope
• Francesco di Giorgio
• List of established military terms
• Menno van Coehoorn
• Palmanova

Olomouc bastion fortress in Czech Republic in 1757 Bourtange bastion fortress in Groningen in Netherland plan of bastion fortress (in Finnish) The bastion fortress was once a very modern type of fortress. ... The Castillo de San Marcos is a Spanish built fort located in the city of St. ... The Castle of Good Hope is a fortification in the centre of Cape Town, South Africa. ... Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1395-1482) is an Italian painter of the Sienese School 1439-1501. ... This is a list of established military terms which have been in use for at least 50 years. ... Menno, baron van Coehoorn (1641 - March 17, 1704), Dutch soldier and military engineer, of Swedish extraction. ... Palmanova (Friulian: Palme) is a town in northeastern Italy, close to the border with Slovenia. ...

External links

• Star fort pictures and drawings

Examples of Star Forts in the USA

• Fort McHenry in Baltimore
• Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York Bay
• Fort Wood on Liberty Island in New York Bay
• Star Fort at Ninety Six, South Carolina