As promised, while we are developing our tour dedicated to the Walls of Lucca (which will be available soon), we continue to explain other details of this extraordinary monument. We have already spoken about the Walls and its ramparts, and now let’s talk about the most important defensive buildings: the Bulwarks. As you can see from above, bulwarks have the tipical shape of a leaf and the purpose of this form was not aesthetic, but is useful to better protect from cannon fire! The pointed shape facing outward dampened the strength of the cannon impact, diverting them down, while the bulges protected the gunner placed on the sides of the bulwarks to shoot those who had been foolish enough to assault the curtain wall.
Let's get in the shoes of the enemies:
What to do? Try to destroy the bastions with cannons?
It’s too hard, then let’s just attack the part of the wall between two bastions...uhm...nice idea but doing so, you would find exactly in the crossfire coming from two bulwarks. Infact in the centuries, no one had the courage to besiege Lucca.
Some of you might notice what may seem like a breach in the walls: infact behind S. Frediano church, there isn’t a classic bulwark but a simple platform...forgetfulness? Of course not: on that side of the town, the river was flowing very close to the city and the armies were unable to place guns in that area, so wasn’t necessary another bulkward and a part of the old medieval walls has been reused. Anyway, just to be sure, two simple embankments were built in case of some cannonball passed the river.
As we can see, every construction detail of this beautiful monument was designed with a specific purpose as well as the underground, the barracks and the gates ... but the story will continue in the next post! Follow our Blog!