'Bastioned’ residences: models and projects, in Garofalo E, Scaduto F, Fortified Palaces in Early Modern Sicily. Models, Image Strategy, Functions

Abstract

In early modern Sicily the extra-urban fortified residence was a limited but important architectural phenomenon. Starting from the last decades of the fifteenth century, previous residential buildings, especially Towers, were in some cases renewed by the introductio of a surronding fortified perimeter with bastioned (e.g. Dojon of Adrano; tower of Migaido). Subsequently the genesis of new palaces with bastions, bulwarks and pseudo- bulwarks is certainly linked to contemporary publications and specialized treaties, but local conditions played an equaly important role. The position along the Mediterranean frontier the islamic world and the presence of numerous military engineers created an environment particularly open to fortified buildings, providing at the same time a wide range of experiences for confrontation and imitation. In this situation the symbolic meaning of fortified structures was particularly resonant with aristocratic clients. The representation aspect was evident also in buildings with a true defensive purpose. Medieval idioms and allusion to modern fortifications were used to legitimate social hierarchies. At the end of the seventheenth century , for example , the Rome-trained architect Giacomo Amato planned a magnificent palace for the Spaccaforno family with bastions and a double boundary wall. This paper will present a sequence of examples that are most representative of this architectural phenomenon. It will expecially focus on models in use and how they change along the centuries; on the intertwinig between residential and military needs in the conformation of inside and outside spaces; and finally , on the relation between images strategy and practical function.