Geometry and Genius Loci: Battista Antonelli’s Fortifications in Havana

Abstract

In the wake of the conquest of the New World by the Spanish crown at the end of the fifteenth century, the expansionist interests of the other major European powers had become so invasive as to convince the Spanish King Philip II of the need to develop a systematic project for the military defense of the most important ports and coastal areas of his new overseas colonies. Italian military engineer Battista Antonelli was the first to apply the methods and procedures of Renaissance military architecture to the construction of Philip’s fortifications in the New World. This paper analyses two important works of fortification that he designed and built in the city of Havana between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth: the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro and the Castillo San Salvador de la Punta. Their completion not only introduced the European Renaissance culture of military architecture to the island, but also had a strong impact on the urban development of the city in general and its relationship with the surrounding territory.