Military Architecture (History)
Introduction
Fortress is called any fortified point capable of containing a suitable garrison and from which a square, a gate, a river or an important place can be defended.
In military language, the fortress is usually called plaza, undoubtedly taking it from French, where the word place is also used in this same sense. However, if the use of said word is excusable there, because place means, in addition to plaza, place or point, in Spanish it is not the same: in the Spanish language the qualifier must necessarily be added: thus, it is said plaza de Armas, plaza fort"), plaza de guerra"), fortified plaza"). A large number of writers have used the expression fortress, applying it to large fortified cities, while military engineers have reduced their meaning, preferentially calling small fortified cities or isolated forts fortresses.
History
The fortresses have a very ancient origin and very notable memories in history. The Capitol that crowned Rome was nothing more than a fortress: and that fortress was the emblem of the force that dominated the entire world. The camps of the Roman emperors were, it is said, true fortresses. Carthage, according to Appian, and Marseille and Bourges, according to Julius Caesar, were admirable fortresses. The Romans and the barbarians, each in turn, increased these means of defense, consisting of fortresses, circuses and theaters. Alexandria defended by Caesar; Side "Side (city)"), in Asia Minor; Orange "Orange (Vaucluse)") and Nimes offer us excellent testimonies of this truth.
In ancient Europe, the Franks, a people of encamped soldiers, a nation of destroyers, long strangers to the art of fortification, did not dominate Gaul until after having devastated the numerous fortifications with which it was planted. Charlemagne, an imitator of his father, destroyed with one hand the forts that the French lords wanted to build against him and with the other he destroyed those that served as bastions for the Saxons. The Norman irruptions forced the French nobility to fill their domains with fortresses, and after the departure of those bandits from the North or during the armistices, they became the shelter of new legions of ravagers. The highest places were usually chosen to erect these fortresses, and hence the names that have remained for some cities, such as Rochefort&action=edit&redlink=1 "Roquefort (Belgium) (not yet written)") and others.