7 ms·

Bastion Fort

21 points by rglover 3y ago

prmoustache 3y ago
As a kid I spend a number of years in Calais, close to the Citadel (we used to call it Fort Vauban as well). Having only a very small garden it kind of became our playground. We used to take our bicycles and improvise some course on the ramparts, some of them being claimed by the grass nowadays. I laugh when I see people taking stairways on a full suspension bicycle, I used to do that on an old steel "randonneuse" with small 650c wheels. It also hosted a track and field + additionnal grass-hockey field where we would have our sports classes in primary and secondary school.
frantzmiccoli 3y ago
I can only a recommend a visit to Palmanova in Northern Italy which is basically a very small town built for defensive purposes. The defensive structures are intact and it is really a thing to visit at a one hour drive from Venice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmanova https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmanova
- bergie 3y ago
  The other intact one is Hamina in eastern Finland. We sailed there last summer, was worth the visit! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina
- YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
  Hey, I've been there! My friend had an ancestor from Palmanova so we paid a visit. It's ... too quiet. The countryside is pretty and you can take a nice walk on the outside of the walls that gives you a good view of the fortifications, but there's not too much else to do. There's a small museum with bits and bobs from WWII. The town itself is mostly modern buildings. On the days we were there, they had a feast for the local saint and there were some trailers with shooting games etc (shot a ping-pong ball off a fountain and won a dolphin plushie :). The day we were leaving it seemed like things would get more lively as the central square was ringed all around by maybe 100 benches of farmers selling cheese, cured meats and all sorts of other local produce. I suspect there would be more people coming in, in the evening.
jojobas 3y ago
Nice as they are, you can't really appreciate them except in aerial view.
- frantzmiccoli 3y ago
  Well not even, Aerial gives you the geometry and the aesthetics. But it's not easy to understand the defensive structure without considering the different elevations, that's easier to grasp on-site.
Kim_Bruning 3y ago
There's a lot of these! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bastion_forts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bastion_forts They're particularly dense in the Netherlands for some reason (had to be broken out per province). There's a bunch along the US East Coast too. I even visited one (on Governors island, New York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jay ) Now that part still makes sense to me, since the east coast was colonized in the 1700s-ish. What surprised me is that apparently there's a few forts very far inland!

21 points by rglover 3y ago

As a kid I spend a number of years in Calais, close to the Citadel (we used to call it Fort Vauban as well). Having only a very small garden it kind of became our playground. We used to take our bicycles and improvise some course on the ramparts, some of them being claimed by the grass nowadays. I laugh when I see people taking stairways on a full suspension bicycle, I used to do that on an old steel "randonneuse" with small 650c wheels. It also hosted a track and field + additionnal grass-hockey field where we would have our sports classes in primary and secondary school.

frantzmiccoli 3y ago

I can only a recommend a visit to Palmanova in Northern Italy which is basically a very small town built for defensive purposes. The defensive structures are intact and it is really a thing to visit at a one hour drive from Venice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmanova https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmanova

bergie 3y ago
The other intact one is Hamina in eastern Finland. We sailed there last summer, was worth the visit! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina
YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
Hey, I've been there! My friend had an ancestor from Palmanova so we paid a visit. It's ... too quiet. The countryside is pretty and you can take a nice walk on the outside of the walls that gives you a good view of the fortifications, but there's not too much else to do. There's a small museum with bits and bobs from WWII. The town itself is mostly modern buildings. On the days we were there, they had a feast for the local saint and there were some trailers with shooting games etc (shot a ping-pong ball off a fountain and won a dolphin plushie :). The day we were leaving it seemed like things would get more lively as the central square was ringed all around by maybe 100 benches of farmers selling cheese, cured meats and all sorts of other local produce. I suspect there would be more people coming in, in the evening.

jojobas 3y ago

Nice as they are, you can't really appreciate them except in aerial view.

frantzmiccoli 3y ago
Well not even, Aerial gives you the geometry and the aesthetics. But it's not easy to understand the defensive structure without considering the different elevations, that's easier to grasp on-site.

Kim_Bruning 3y ago

There's a lot of these! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bastion_forts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bastion_forts They're particularly dense in the Netherlands for some reason (had to be broken out per province). There's a bunch along the US East Coast too. I even visited one (on Governors island, New York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jay ) Now that part still makes sense to me, since the east coast was colonized in the 1700s-ish. What surprised me is that apparently there's a few forts very far inland!