giro – The Wargaming Erratic

We move to Italy for the Giro d’Italia.

Typical Italian town with narrow streets, church and often detached square tower

Flags and Sashes – Italian Cities all have identity and their medieval past is often the most influential – also heralding the rennaissance. The very concept of a modern united Italy overlays strong local identity.

This keep at Ripattoni caught my eye with its stone framing? The splayed base is something you don’t often see in in earlier castles in the UK. Is this early medieval or much later then? Strange – internet searches only show a different Ripattoni whose keep/tower or torre is clearly built of bricks and stones without the framing.

A typical hilltop town expanded around its original castle with square defence tower

This castle is attributed to Frederick II – Emperor – mid thirteenth century

Naples – some serious constructions

round towers and flared bases – looks like it was moated – wet or dry? not much opportunity for mining even if it was a dry moat though.

Amalfi with Ravello cling to a rocky coastline and were naval in outlook. Amalfi was a vibrant state in the late Byzantine period

Back to Naples……

harbour fortress and former medieval castle I believe

Heading north……..

This looks like a new build in the gunpowder era or just maybe there was an earlier castle now buried within its construction.

Italian castles are a splendid mix of square and round towers plus later bastions. Wikipedia have a convenient thread on bastions………

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastion_fort

Bergamo was a significant City and often fought over.

Further into the lakes…….

Which Romans in the 6th Century – 500 to 599 AD? I guess thats Byzantine Exarchate by then as we are on the Adige in the Trento region? Shortly to be invaded by the Lombards and then the Carolingians. After them came the German Emperors and this castle layout dates from 13th century.

An original “guns of navarone” – scenario beckons?

Something a bit different – the bridge had many interesting lives and was destroyed in world war 2 – this modern version is a copy of the 1569 replacement bridge – if you see what I mean.

The great thing about many castles in Italy is they are a composite – irregularly shaped, with square and round towers plus later gunpowder era bastions.

the ever present piazza and tower – note its looks to predate the adjacent building because of its misalignment. Its 13th century and so is the Paazzo to the left while the connecting part seems 17th century – which makes sense and again is characteristic of building upon building giving these cities their attraction to the eye.

now we go to the high passes…..

Memorial tribute to the savage mountain war between the austrians and italians in world war 1 complete with artillery piece

This impressive tower in Rome overlooks the Tiber and was there in 532 when Belisarius retook the city from the Goths for Emperor Justinian – Castel Sant d’Angelo AD134/139, which I think is so impressive when you see it. Its contents were looted in the 401 sack while later on the Romans took its decorative stonework to dress up St Peters. This reminds me that you can see fantastic Byzantine metalwork in Italy – made by craftsmen from Constantinople and sometimes simply looted from there by Normans and Venetians etc.

no idea which battle or which painting/mural either !

I started to watch the Slovenia cycle race but got distracted – I believe its a castle rich area given is “marcher” region history.

dates from 1278 according to brief wikipedia entry. I like the pen and ink picture!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDovnek_Castle

There you go – hardly a straight edge in sight – 0k a couple – but in Italy the castle and fortress designs seem to hug the contours and show only your imagination stands between you and your own dream castle.