In the sixteenth century, chronic wars and a high concentration of towns made the Low Countries one of Europe's prime laboratories for innovations in military architecture and urbanism. The 1553 inspection tour of the region by engineers Giovanni Maria Olgiati and Sebastian van Noyen marked the assimilation of “Italian-style” fortifications into Netherlandish practice and the transition there from defenses with bastions to proper bastioned systems. Olgiati and Van Noyen's joint tour is well documented through a dozen design drawings now held at the Vatican Library, Turin's Archivio di Stato, and Madrid's Palacio Real, as well as a closely related atlas in Turin and complementary archival records. As Pieter Martens discusses in Planning Bastions: Olgiati and Van Noyen in the Low Countries in 1553, these materials, including many hitherto unknown plans, provide new insights into the design process, offer a unique panorama of the Low Countries' border defenses at this critical moment, and illuminate the genesis and spread of bastioned fortifications in Europe.
Skip Nav Destination
Close
Article navigation
March 2019
Research Article|
March 01 2019
Planning Bastions:Olgiati and Van Noyen in the Low Countries in 1553
Pieter Martens
Pieter Martens
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pieter Martens is assistant professor of architectural history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He holds a PhD in architectural engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on military architecture, siege warfare, and urban iconography in sixteenth-century Europe. pieter.martens@vub.be
Search for other works by this author on:
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2019) 78 (1): 25–48.
Citation
Pieter Martens; Planning Bastions:Olgiati and Van Noyen in the Low Countries in 1553. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 March 2019; 78 (1): 25–48. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2019.78.1.25
Download citation file:
Close
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.