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Castello Aragonese (Taranto)
The Castello Aragonese is a fortification in Taranto, Italy. Officially called the Castel San Angelo, it was built on the site of older fortifications dating to Greek occupation in the third and fourth centuries BC. In 1481 the low ground in front of the fortification site was excavated to allow the passage of boats, and to create a moated defensive position. The present fortress was built for the then-king of Naples, Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1496 to reinforce the naturally low-lying link between the old town of Taranto on a peninsula, and the mainland. The seven-towered design is attributed to Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena. The fortress repelled an Ottoman attack in 1594, but it quickly lost its military significance with the advent of artillery. It was converted to an artillery platform and many interior spaces were filled in to provide a stable base for the guns. In 1707 under the Habsburgs it was converted to a prison however during the Napoleonic period it reverte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castello Aragonese - Taranto
Castello may refer to: Places *Municipalities of San Marino, known as Castello in Italian *Castello, Venice, the largest of the six ''sestieri'' of Venice *''Castello'', the old town center of Giudicato of Cagliari in Sardinia *''Castello'', a neighbourhood in Florence *Castello, Hong Kong, a private housing estate in Hong Kong *A locality in the town of Monteggio in Switzerland *Cittadella (Gozo), a citadel in Gozo, Malta *Short name of Castellón de la Plana, a city in the Valencian Community, Spain *Città di Castello, a town in Umbria, Italy Other *Roman Catholic Diocese of Castello, a former diocese based in Venice *Castello (surname) *Castello cheeses See also *Castell (other) *Castella (other) *Castelli (other) * Castellón (other) *Castells (other) Castells () is a Catalan name, the plural form of Castell (castle). It may refer to: * Castells (surname) * The Castells, American early 1960s pop band * '' Castells'', the Cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taranto
Taranto (; ; previously called Tarent in English) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Taranto, serving as an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base. Founded by Spartans in the 8th century BC during the period of Greek colonisation, Taranto was among the most important '' poleis'' in Magna Graecia, becoming a cultural, economic and military power that gave birth to philosophers, strategists, writers and athletes such as Archytas, Aristoxenus, Livius Andronicus, Heracleides, Iccus, Cleinias, Leonidas, Lysis and Sosibius. By 500 BC, the city was among the largest in the world, with a population estimated up to 300,000 people. The seven-year rule of Archytas marked the apex of its development and recognition of its hegemony over other Greek colonies of southern Italy. During the Norman period, it became the capital of the Principality of Taranto, which covered almost all of the heel of Apulia. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer. Historical use Ancient Some of the earliest evidence of moats has been uncovered around ancient Egyptian fortresses. One example is at Buhen, a settlement excavated in Nubia. Other evidence of ancient moats is found in the ruins of Babylon, and in reliefs from ancient Egypt, Assyria, and other cultures in the region. Evidence of early moats around settlements has been discovered in many archaeological sites throughout Southeast Asia, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand II Of Aragon
Ferdinand II, also known as Ferdinand I, Ferdinand III, and Ferdinand V (10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), called Ferdinand the Catholic, was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 (as Ferdinand V). He reigned jointly with Isabella over a Dynastic union, dynastically unified Spain; together they are known as the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand is considered the ''de facto'' first king of Spain, and was described as such during his reign, even though, legally, Crown of Castile, Castile and Crown of Aragon, Aragon remained two separate kingdoms until they were formally united by the Nueva Planta decrees issued between 1707 and 1716. The Crown of Aragon that Ferdinand inherited in 1479 included the kingdoms of Kingdom of Aragon, Aragon, Kingdom of Valencia, Valencia, Kingdom of Majorca, Majorca, Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia, and Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily, as well as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco Di Giorgio Martini
Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was an Italian architect, engineer, painter, sculptor, and writer. As a painter, he belonged to the Sienese School. He was considered a visionary architectural theorist—in Nikolaus Pevsner's terms: "one of the most interesting later Quattrocento architects". As a military engineer, he executed architectural designs and sculptural projects and built almost seventy fortifications for the Federico da Montefeltro, Count (later Duke) of Urbino, building city walls and early examples of star-shaped fortifications. Born in Siena, he apprenticed as a painter with Vecchietta. In panels painted for '' cassoni'' he departed from the traditional representations of joyful wedding processions in frieze-like formulas to express visions of ideal, symmetrical, vast and all but empty urban spaces rendered in perspective. He composed an architectural treatis''Trattato di architettura, ingegneria e arte militare'' the third of the Quattrocento, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siena
Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 as of 2025. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking centre until the 13th and 14th centuries. Siena is also home to the List of oldest banks in continuous operation, oldest bank in the world, the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Monte dei Paschi, which has been operating continuously since . Several significant Mediaeval and Renaissance painters were born and worked in Siena, among them Duccio di Buoninsegna, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Stefano di Giovanni, Sassetta, and influenced the course of Italian and European art. The University of Siena, originally called ''Studium Senese'', was founded in 1240, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habsburgs
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern period, including the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. The house takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a fortress built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland by Radbot of Klettgau, who named his fortress Habsburg. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the fortress name as his own, adding "Count of Habsburg" to his title. In 1273, Count Radbot's seventh-generation descendant, Rudolph, was elected King of the Romans. Taking advantage of the extinction of the Babenbergs and of his victory over Ottokar II of Bohemia at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, he appointed his sons as Dukes of Austria and moved the family's power base to Vienna, where the Habsburg dynasty gained the name of "House of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
Army general (France), Army-General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (; 25 March 1762 – 26 February 1806) was a French Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary Wars. Along with fellow French officers and Toussaint Louverture, Abram Petrovich Gannibal from Imperial Russia and Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski from Poland, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was noted as a man of African descent (in Dumas's case, through his mother) leading European troops as a general officer. All four commanded as officers in the French Army and apart from Gannibal, who was only Abram Petrovich Gannibal#Education, captain and engineer-sapper in the Army of Louis XV during his formative years, they all gained their general ranks in the French Army, about four decades after Gannibal had done the same in Russia. Yet Dumas was the first Gens de couleur, person of color in the French military to become brigadier general, divisional general, and general-in-chief of a French army. Born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand I Of The Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I (Italian language, Italian: ''Ferdinando I''; 12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, King of the Two Sicilies from 1816 until his death. Before that he had been, since 1759, King of Naples as Ferdinand IV and King of Sicily as Ferdinand III. He was deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799, and again by a Invasion of Naples (1806), French invasion in 1806, before being restored in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Ferdinand was born in Naples as the third son of Charles III of Spain, King Charles VII and Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen Maria Amalia. In August 1759, Charles succeeded his half-brother Ferdinand VI of Spain as King Charles III, but treaty provisions made him ineligible to hold all three crowns. On 6 October, he abdicated his Neapolitan and Sicilian titles in favour of his third son, Ferdinand, because his eldest son Infante Philip, Duke of Calabria, Ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanfedismo
''Sanfedismo'' (from ''Santa Fede'', "Holy Faith" in Italian) was a popular anti-Jacobin movement, organized by Fabrizio Cardinal Ruffo, which mobilized peasants of the Kingdom of Naples against the pro-French Parthenopaean Republic in 1799, its aims culminating in the restoration of the Monarchy under Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Its full name was the Army of Holy Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Italian: ''Armata della Santa Fede in nostro Signore Gesù Cristo''), and its members were called Sanfedisti. The terms ''Santafede'', ''Sanfedismo'' and ''Sanfedisti'' (sometimes rendered in English as 'Sanfedism' and 'Sanfedist') are sometimes used more generally to refer to any religiously motivated, improvised peasant army that sprung up on the Italian peninsula to resist the newly created French client republics. Campaign Cardinal Ruffo recruited the Sanfedisti in his native Calabria. His recruiting poster of February 1799 reads: :"Brave and courageous Calabrians, unite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until then, the island of Sicily and southern Italy had constituted the "Kingdom of Sicily". When the island of Sicily revolted and was conquered by the Crown of Aragon, it become a separate kingdom also called the Kingdom of Sicily. This left the Neapolitan mainland in the possession of Charles of Anjou who continued to use the name "Kingdom of Sicily". Later, two competing lines of the Angevin family competed for the Kingdom of Naples in the late 14th century, which resulted in the murder of Joanna I at the hands of her successor, Charles III of Naples. Charles' daughter Joanna II adopted King Alfonso V of Aragon as heir, who would then unite Naples into his Aragonese dominions in 1442. As part of the Italian Wars, France briefly r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ponte Girevole
The Ponte Girevole is a swing bridge in Taranto, Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ..., spanning the navigation canal between Taranto's Mar Grande and the Mar Piccolo. The bridge connects Borgo Antico (Old Town) island to the Borgo Nuovo (new Town) peninsula. The canal was excavated in 1481 as part of the defenses of Taranto. A steel and wood bridge was first built across the canal in 1886. The present steel bridge was built in 1958. Officially titled the Ponte di San Francesco di Paola, the bridge has two swing spans that pivot near the banks of the canal to meet in the middle of the canal. When open, the halves are parallel to the embankment, leaving the width of the canal clear for passage. The bridge is a Taranto landmark. The canal is long and wide. The fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
