Defensive Architecture

ANTONELLI'S WALL or FELIPE II's

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The rebellion of the moors and the danger that this entailed for the city were the trigger for the construction in 1570 of the first fortification with polygonal bastions. King Philip II commissioned the engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, and the viceroy of Valencia, Vespasiano de Gonzaga to adapt the defensive project of Dávalos (approved by Charles I and suspended due to the war against France) to the defensive needs of the city.

The terrestrial defence prevailed over the coastal one. All of this contemplated the construction of a fortification that followed the same disposition that the previous Charles I's Wall, but this one extended a few meters to the outside, in its southern, eastern, and northern sections, although the most outstanding thing is the extension in the West section to leave inside the walled enclosure, the buildings that were part of the “Proveeduría de Armadas y Fronteras” (Spanish for Armadas and Borders Procurement), such as the King's House. The construction finished in the years 1575-76, although it seems that the work was not completed at all. Its earth walls, for the most part, collapsed, as it had been left unfinished, the old wall could not be ignored, leaving an urban nucleus with two parallel walls, one modern, made of earth, and the other ancient, made of stone.

It is a fortification of rammed earth, following the trend of new construction techniques; of not very compacted earth that absorbed the projectiles and greatly reduced their effects.

The visible remains of the Wall are inside the Molinete's Archaeological Park.


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