The 'Spanish school' bastion defence

In the history of fortification in the period when in Europe and in the colonies states spreads the bastion system an Italian school, a French school, a Dutch, and a German one are mentioned; but there is also a Spanish school, which however is less considered. Begun by Italian military engineers this other way bastion defence became heritage of Spanish military engineers, military officers often, but during the seventeenth century went running out. This probably depends on the fact that, because of its peculiarities, the Spanish way bastion defence was not as successful than the others, proved that for his own inefficient features and was then supplanted by other theoretical guidelines on which in practice instead were winners revealed. There are numerous testimonies of this 'school' in the Spanish dominions of the Italian peninsula, in the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta and in the colonies and they are recognizable, as well as through the documentary evidence, by the specific architectural features. Some of these features are easily detectable. Rather than the defence of an entire fortress city, by the high economic cost and long lead times, such as Spanish, pressed by impending war, pointing to the creation of small forts. As a result of this there is not a distinction between curtain and bastion and no hips in which to stay the batteries for flanking fire; consequently more often absent trunions protecting the casemates or batteries in your beard. In the contribution we examine especially some of these forts made in Sicily between the sixteenth and seventeenth century.