Maurizio Vesco

Ingegneri militari nella Sicilia degli Asburgo: formazione, competenze e carriera di una figura professionale tra Cinque e Seicento.

During the Sixteenth century and the first half of the following one, Sicily played a key role in the strategy of defense of the Spanish Empire from the looming Turkish threat, being an island considered as a baluarte against the Turks. Yet despite this absolute centrality in the military policy of the Spanish monarchy, till now historical research has preferred to provide broader spectrum interpretations at the expense of in-depth studies on individual technicians or overall pictures about the figure of the military engineer. We will present a synoptic view attesting the time period of activity covered by each military technician working for the kingdom of Sicily, within a wider study concerning the origin of this professional figure, the diversification of technicians working on fortifications, the progressive changes in the organizational chart and the enrichment of competences for military engineers much beyond l’arte del fortificare. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/FORTMED2015.2015.1696

Dal rettifilo alla croce: l'apertura di strada Maqueda a Palermo

Strada Maqueda has until the present day been subjected almost exclusively to critical interpretations, which have correctly highlighted its symbolic value, especially with reference to the showing-off of the cross. This is an expression of an increasingly orthodox and extremist Catholicism on an unprecedented urban scale. Little has been said, on the other hand, about issues related to the actual construction of this urban space, to all the gutting that was necessary related to the opening of the building site in the dense, compact area of one of the most important Mediterranean capitals, of a road which is one and a half kilometres long and more than 11 metres wide; in the year 1600, this rectilinear road was an extremely complex urban intervention on the European scene. This research, with the aid of new archival documentation, aims to focus on the protagonists of this architectural achievement, on the progressive steps taken, the timing and organization of the construction site, as well as thexa0 tools and techniques used to plan the urban space in order to properly lay out the new road through the medieval neighbourhoods. Keywords: Sicily, Palermo, strada Maqueda, city planning, XVIIth century