Cinte urbane fortificate in Calabria in età vicereale. Le committenze feudali: ammodernamenti, ripari, nuove fondazioni

Among the directions pursued by the Spanish Crown in the context of military policy during the period in which its territories and borders, especially coastal ones, were constantly subject to the Franco-Turkish threat (16th-17th century), the main one concerned the strengthening of defensive structures. From these assumptions, the PRIN-PNRR 2022 P20228ZXFH entitled “Mapping fortified cities in early modern Southern Italy. Digital tools to investigate architectural heritage” (University of Naples, Bari and Reggio Calabria) starts, which intends to investigate the theme of fortified cities during the centuries of the Spanish Viceroyalty. Among these, a little-investigated aspect concerns the works of feudal patronage, which this contribution looks at, taking Calabria as an emblematic case. Here, several modernization interventions were started on pre-existing structures or new constructions, promoted independently or with the support of royal planners by important families, also typologically alongside the construction sites of state-owned cities. Material evidence of some fortifications remains; others have disappeared, due to seismic or war events, or to the natural evolution of cities, which led to the abandonment, reuse or demolition of the cumbersome and now useless fortified structures, ideologically linked to a period of oppression – that of Spanish domination – inevitably destined to a damnatio memoriae.