These are some rather spectacular sites, where fortified structures appear ingrained as part of the landscape, rather than merely sat upon it. Displaying a geometric beauty we do not often find in today’s projects.

They are found all over the world, apparently there 1,734 known sites, over 105 countries. That’s quite a widespread technique, and really does then beg the question, what was their true purpose? Are they just for aesthetics, even though they cannot be observed in their full splendour except from above?

Many have been destroyed, lost to time or simply remodelled or built over, so who know how many there really were. But the interesting tale of why is the usual type of thing, apparently, they were all built for extra strategic defensive purposes. It is said “Star forts, or bastion forts, are a type of fortification that first emerged more than 500 years ago in response to the growing power of cannons on the battlefield, with sloped walls and angled bastions that allowed defenders better coverage above any attackers“.

Now, make of that what you will, and if you read about specific countries, they will tell you that they all starting doing it around the same time, and nearly even bankrupted their countries to do it. So, what was this invading force all over Europe and the world around the 1500’s that required everyone to adopt the same building style – for random forts dotted here and there? Not sure myself, but if you have an idea of what that might have been, please do comment with that. I have already taken a brief look at 1522, because of a social media comment from Jane Goodall saying we need to reduce population to that of 500 years ago to restabilise society. But I found that in that year alone, there really was quite a bit going on, which would not lead me to believe it was stable at all, despite the claimed population number at the time. For example, we had – The Knights’ Revolt in Germany, A terrible plague in Rome, The first major slave revolt in North America occurred, The Battle of Bicocca, a major earthquake in Almeria, Spain, The Treaty of Windsor was signed to name but a few. In one year, so they say. So, to think that it was all smiles, roses and opportunity just because there were less people, is a strange fallacy to hold onto. And as I have mentioned in my article A Working Strategy, it was in 1388 they put laws and acts in place to heavily control and utilise the population in the UK. So, I am again surprised that we had enough people, skills, materials and money to undertake such elaborate projects on a vast scale, keeping in mind cathedrals and churches were also being built around this time as the monasteries fell. Seems there is still much to mull over…

(c) K Wicks