Sforza Pallavicino and Zadar

Abstract

Based on the archival sources, the author presents the assessments and defensive measures implemented by condottiere Sforza Pallavicino in Zadar. In the Venetian service from 1557, he visited Dalmatia in 1559 and wrote a report on the towns and forts there. It is evident from that and his later texts that he considered many of them to be weak, and he rated only three fortifications as satisfactory, suggesting the necessary improvements: Zadar, St Nicholas in Šibenik, and Trogir. Sforza highly valued Zadar as the most important Venetian stronghold between Venice and Corfu, with a port that was suitable for a large fleet. His intention was to protect the harbour with a wide new fortification belt, which remained unaccomplished. From 1567, according to his own project, he led the construction of a large landside outwork, called Forte. It is known from his records that he also designed two bastions included in the main defence belt: St Marcella and the Citadel bastion, to which he assigned the primary task of controlling the two flanks of Forte, which he conceived as the main point of Zadar’s defence. The paper also shows Sforza’s polemic with Ferrante Vitelli, who wrote his review of the Zadar fortifications in 1576 and Sforza replied to him in 1578.