venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 207
During the 16th century, several military engineers were sent on tours of
inspection and returned with recommendations for the fortification of
urban centers, nearly all of them port towns.314 Although specific projects
were prepared and confirmed and their financing also planned, the works
often dragged on for many years and consumed a considerable amount
of money.
From 1542, all these activities were under the supervision of a new
magistracy, the Provveditori alle fortezze.315 The second half of the 16th
century was a particularly intensive period in this field. The city walls of
Zara, the fort of San Nicolò at Sebenico, the arsenal at Lesina, as well as
various compounds at Trau, Spalato, Cattaro, Nadin, Novegradi, and their
surroundings were refortified according to the new techniques of Renais-
sance military architecture.316 In Crete, starting from the 1540s, the three
main port towns on the northern coast, Candia, La Canea, and Rettimo,
received special attention.317 They were all refortified according to proj-
ects prepared by leading military engineers. In Rettimo, whose fortifica-
tions were ruined in an Ottoman attack during the war of Cyprus, a new
fortress was built on the hill overlooking the town, further separating, on
the one hand, the Venetian reggimento, the Latin bishop and his Cathe-
dral, as well as the Venetian garrison, who were well protected within its
walls (not well enough, as they learned in 1646) and, on the other, the
local inhabitants of Rettimo, who had to content themselves with the less
imposing walls of the town itself. Between 1574 and 1587, 51,454 ducats
were spent on this project. During the 16th century the Venetians also built
three island fortresses along the northern shores of Crete, for the protec-
tion of navigation along the colony’s coasts. These fortresses—Grabusa,
Spinalunga, and Suda—were the only parts of Crete which remained in
Venice’s possession after the surrender of the colony to the Ottomans in
1669.318 A fortress built in Sitia, the easternmost town on the northern
coast, was apparently destroyed by the Venetians themselves as a defen-
sive measure right after the Ottoman invasion.
314 Ibid., pp. 431–34.
315 Hale, “The First Fifty Years of a Venetian Magistracy: The Provveditori alle Fortezze,”
in Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi, eds., Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron
(Florence, 1971), pp. 499–530.
316 Praga, History of Dalmatia, p. 164; Zanelli, “La piazzaforte di Zara.”
317 What follows is mainly based on Ioanna Steriotou, “Le fortezze del Regno di Candia.
L’organizzazione, i progetti, la costruzione,” in Gherardo Ortalli, ed., Venezia e Creta
(Venice, 1998), pp. 283–302.
318 Hale, “Part II: 1509–1617,” p. 445.