Eastern Elba: The Birth and Transformations of Portoferraio and Its Military Architecture

Founded in 1548 at the behest of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Portoferraio and its surrounding territory underwent a continuous process of military infrastructure renewal from its foundation through World War II. This study addresses the subject from a twofold perspective: on the one hand, it analyzes the different cartographic representation methods adopted over the centuries, highlighting the specific features of Italian and French productions; on the other, by employing well-established integrated methodologies (historical and cartographic research, large-scale data acquisition surveys, thermography, etc.), it reconstructs the transformations over time and translates them into digital models.