Alghero 371
Figure 14.5 General view of the Maddalena bastion (1552–1578).
capable of enhancing the internal resistance of the defensive structure.28
The materials found (green and brown Catalan majolica and Valencian ma-
jolica with Malaga-style decoration) point to a date in the first half of the
fourteenth century. The building technique used in this stretch of the city
wall—stones joined together with clay—is confirmed by Catalan notary Pere
Fuya, who inspected the “Genoese” city wall on 19 February 1364, stressing the
need for restoration inasmuch as “lo mur [...] es de pedre e de brach” (Fig. 14.8).29
This stretch of the Genoese walls was reconstructed after the sack of 1283 (in
1305);30 the same walls defended by 500–700 Genoese crossbowmen during
the Catalan-Aragonese siege, which led to the definitive conquest of the city
28 Marco Milanese, Mauro Fiori, and Alessandra Carlini, “Temi e problemi dell’archeologia
urbana ad Alghero: nuovi dati sulla città tardomedievale dagli interventi 2004–2000,”
Archeologia Medievale 33 (2006), pp. 481–489.
29 “Ha necessari, en lo dit trast, de fer crosta e solada de calcina sobra lo dit mur, per ço que
l’aygua no puegue abeurar lo mur qui es de pedre e de brach,” Pere Fuyà, quoted in Salvietti,
Alghero. Le fortificazioni medievali, pp. 40–41. On the basis of overlapping written and ar-
chaeological sources, Genoese and Catalan phases of the city walls have distinct masonry
techniques, which lie in the bonding agent—clay in the first case, lime in the second.
30 After 1305, and following their recent alliance, Doria and Malaspina began work-
ing on fortifying town centers and citadels. A date in the first half of the fourteenth