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Fortification
of Cyprus
The Venetians,
therefore, sent to Cyprus, about the year 1550, the famous
military engineer Giovanni Girolamo Sammichele, to complete the
fortifications of Famagusta according to the latest theories of
defence. Sammichele built the great rampart along the sea from
the arsenal to the sea castle, entirely surrounding the latter
with the new wall. The rampart was thence extended along the
northern side of the city to the great Martinengo bastion at the
north-west corner.
The Martinengo bastion, the crowning feature
of Sammichele's work, is one of the finest existing specimens of
military architecture of the sixteenth century. Planted on a
rocky eminence, the guns upon it could weep not only the
rock-hewn ditch on both sides but also the rocky slopes down to
the sea and far inland. It was so strong that the Turks never
attempted to attack it when they besieged the city in 1571.
Sammichele died at Famagusta in 1559 before his work was
completed.
About ten years
later, another famous Venetian engineer Guilio Savorgnano, was
sent to Cyprus to advise on the defences of Nicosia. He reported
that the mediaeval walls built by King Pierre II were useless
against artillery, and was then commissioned to fortify the city
according to the latest ideas. Savorgnano, with the help of the
provveditore, Francesco Barbaro, designed the immense earthworks
and ditch, about three miles in circuit, with eleven bastions
faced with masonry, the remains of which may still be seen.
The
mediaeval wall and ditch, being outside the new ramparts, had to
be levelled so as not to afford shelter to the attack. But,
Savorgnano did not remain to complete his designs. He was
recalled to Venice to meet a more pressing danger, and left the
work to be completed by the new and incompetent provveditore,
Nicholas Dandolo.
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