208 benjamin arbel
On Cyprus, during most of the century of Venetian rule, the Republic
focused its defensive efforts on Famagusta, whose old walls were con-
tinuously repaired and rebuilt throughout the Venetian period. With its
protected harbour, Famagusta offered the possibility to withstand a long
siege, as it really did in 1570–71. Cerines (Kerynia), on the island’s northern
coast, was also refortified between 1504 and 1529. Finally, shortly before
the Ottoman invasion of 1570, Venice decided to build new defensive walls
around the colony’s capital, Nicosia. This project involved the destruc-
tion of entire town quarters, whose inhabitants, although compensated
to some extent for their losses, suffered greatly under these circumstances
(and even more so during the Ottoman conquest that followed suite).319
During the second half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th,
the Ionian islands also saw big fortification projects. The so-called old for-
tress of Corfu was rebuilt, and an entirely new fortress was added later on
the northeastern part of this town. The project lasted several decades, the
programs were revised several times, and great resources were invested
in both fortresses. In this case too, whole quarters had to be evacuated,
and the town assumed an entirely new layout. Finally, the town itself (i
borghi), which had previously been totally undefended, was also encircled
by walls. The fortress of Zante, overlooking the borgo, underwent similar
rebuilding. In Cephalonia, a new fortress was built as from 1586 at Asso
(Assos), on the western coast of the island, overlooking a protected, natu-
ral port. However, Venetian efforts to attract settlers to this new, fortified
compound, were not very successful.320
The conquest of the Morea and its establishment as Venice’s new Regno
brought a new series of fortification projects. The imposing fortress of
319 Hill, A History of Cyprus, 3:844–64; Giovanni Perbellini, “Le fortificazioni di Cipro dal
X al XIV secolo,” Castellum 17 (1973), 7–58; Antonio Manno, “Politica e architettura militare:
le difese di Venezia (1557–1573),” Studi veneziani n.s. 11 (1986), 91–137; Grivaud, “Aux confins
de l’empire”; Gilles Grivaud, “Nicosie remodelée (1567): contribution à la topographie de
la ville médiévale,” Επετηρίς του Κέντρου Επιστημονικών Ερευνών 19 (1992), 281–306; Walter
Panciera, “Défendre Chypre. La construction et la reddition de la fortresse de Nicosie
(1567–1570),” in Anne Brogini and Maria Ghazali, eds., Des marges aux frontières. Les
puissances et les îles en Méditéranée à l’époque moderne (Paris, 2010), pp. 81–101.
320 Bacchion, Il dominio veneto su Corfù, pp. 85–97; Hale, “Parts II: 1509–1617,” p. 446;
Nicolaos G. Moschonas, “Éκθεση του αντιπροβλεπτή Άσου Αμβρόσιου Corner (1597),” in
Μνημόσυνον Σοφίας Αντωνιάδη (Venice, 1974), pp. 247–60; Ennio Concina, “Città e fortezze
nelle ‘Tre Isole Nostre del Levante,’ ” in Venezia e la difesa del Levante. Da Lepanto a Candia
(1570–1670) (Venice, 1986), pp. 185–220; Ζοι Α. Mylona, Το καστρο της Ζακύνθου (Athens,
2003).