From the high citadels of Pedro Escrivá in Naples to the new Portuguese paradigm of coastal city-fortresses

During his journey in Italy, Francisco de Holanda recorded recent developments in military architecture (Codex Livro das Antigualhas, 1538–1540, Escorial). At that time, Pedro Escrivá was working under Charles V’s orders on the citadels of L’Aquila and Castel Sant’Angelo, in the capital of the Kingdom of Naples. Although Holanda likely saw the newly built fortress in the mountains of central Italy, he seems to have overlooked it in his drawings. And about Castel Sant’Elmo, he only sketched a brief detail (fol. 45r, Antigualhas), depictioning the entrance — with imposing vertical and deep gunports — highlighting the engineering effort of carving the citadel into solid rock. It also appears to critique the high costs of building such impregnable hilltop fortress at a time when warfare increasingly relied on naval sieges. Holanda’s apparent lack of interest in Escrivá’s star-shaped design, as a contribution to flanking crossfire strategy, contrasts with his elaborate drawing of Castel Nuovo. This ancient palace-fortress, located at the foot of Sant’Elmo hill, is depicted with its distinctive pentagonal bulwark near the harbor (fol. 53v, Antigualhas). Upon returning to Portugal in 1540, Holanda contributed to the design of the fortified city of Mazagão (participated by engineers Ravenna, Torralva, Arruda and Castilho), giving advice on brick construction techniques — as noted in his drawing for new walls at Pesaro (fol. 36v, Antigualhas) — as well as on curtain walls and bulwarks. These ideas may also relate to his reported meeting with Sanmicheli in the Venetto. Mazagão (Morocco), the first Modern city-fortress of Europe, along with Ceuta (also in North Africa) or Diu (Gujarat/Indian Ocean) – all built in the early 1540s –, reflect a shift to bulwarked fortresses with a low profile, adapted to maritime warfare. These were shaped by Portuguese experiments in naval engineering and played a key role in the architecture of overseas Expansion.