Fortified ideal city

European Cultural Route of Fortified Heritage

Experience fortresses

Pearls of fortress construction art

Of military architects and engineers of absolutist princes in the Renaissance planned military city with star shaped or chessboard-like geometry of the roads and the surrounding fortress buildings.
Example cover picture: Fortified ideal city of Terezín (CZ)

The planning and construction of fully fortified towns with strictly geometric layouts were among the most extraordinary achievements of military strategists from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The regular or ‘ideal’ urban geometries, already known to the Greeks and frequently practised by the Romans, were developed into highly effective urban fortresses through the modern bastion systems. One of the first fortified ‘ideal’ cities was Sabbioneta (Italy), built from 1554 onwards.

Whether laid out in a star shape, like the Renaissance towns Palmanova (Italy) and Neuf Brisach/Neu Breisach (France) or rectangular, like the towns Terezin/Theresienstadt or Josefov/Josefstadt (Czech Republic), Zamość (Poland) or Valletta (Malta), all follow the same pattern: the barracks are situated on the outskirts, whilst a large square forms the town centre, where the civil and military authorities were based. The dead-straight streets enabled the military to reach the ramparts quickly. Tall buildings and church towers were deliberately avoided so as not to provide enemies with any landmarks.

The Fortified Ideal City unified the military with all necessary civil crafts and other services in the most effective way. Streets as straight as a die convey the harmony of the overall structure. Their distinctive viewing angles, silhouettes in proper style and often well-preserved defensive systems represent an impressive synthesis of fortress construction art until today. These wonderful regular installations with an exceptional cityscape are literally ‘stars’ of fortress architecture. Many of them belong to the UNESCO World Heritage.