Ada Palmer
Looks fake doesn't it? This reconstruction of Medieval Bologna shows how Italian towns used to be a forest of towers, dense as Manhattan skyscrapers!
Here's a stable blog-formatted version of my thread from yesterday about the lost towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline wars https://www.exurbe.com/the-lost-towers-of-the-guelph-ghibelline-wars/
Lot⁴⁹
@Infoseepage @adapalmer It also has to do with fields of fire. Star-shaped fortifications give you two angles from which to shoot at or pour boiling oil on attackers. Here's Fortress Monroe, VA, a beautiful example that is still in use today (although not to defend against attackers).
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+Monroe,+Hampton,+VA/@36.9983495,-76.3076793,613a,35y,351.79h,41.38t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89ba853112971ded:0xcbbf5eda8390db5c!8m2!3d37.0171968!4d-76.2985941!16s%2Fg%2F1tfc2y15?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDExNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Lot⁴⁹
@Infoseepage @adapalmer It's amazing to think of all the pre-Mechanical-Age labor it took to hew, move and stack all that stone.
Lot⁴⁹
@Infoseepage @adapalmer That's beautiful, thank you. Every summer we visit the castle in Italy where my wife grew up. Work started on it in 1413 or so, and I've often wondered how they did it.
Lot⁴⁹
@Infoseepage @adapalmer Here's the one we visit, which is available for events, if you ever come that way!
And yes I love Macaulay's books, starting with Great Moments in Architecture.
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