The fortified system of the Venetian lagoon between the XV and XVII century. A proposal of development for a highly critical site.

Venice: the city without walls par excellence. It is in the core of the Republic that a complex fortified system was well organised, aimed to defend a vulnerable and changeable environment, as the Venice lagoon is. The incipit was not the direct defense of the city of Venice, but the defense of some considerable sites, such as saltworks or ports. In the past, the Venetian lagoon was able to defend the inner islands thanks to its natural shape, but at the beginning of the XIV century this aptitude caused distress with the great evolution of poliorcetica (art of war). The macchina territoriale (“territorial machine”, as the famous writer Ennio Concina used to say) is the typical structure formed by points scattered all over an area. It is made by a constellation of islands, conversing with a landscape that nowadays is quickly changing