The evolution of the war and the evolution of the place: fortifications across time and landscape

Human settlements often manifest two main needs: living in the best comfortable way and living in the safer possible way. Building and planning made outside of these two basic concepts start being frequent only when the need for "being in a place" becomes stronger than the practical exploitation of the landscape resources. The extended system of fortifications all around the Mediterranean area and in general worldwide shows an imposing approach in territorial management and defence. Knowledge of the territory has always been the basis for design, geology and geomorphology are elements that man has always considered. The landscape transformation is an element that men have to consider, but the time of these transformations is quite different from the human in military transformations, but one is strictly merged with the other. The rules guiding interventions changed continuously, in the beginning, geology and geomorphology were the first resources. Natural or excavated caves and tunnels were the first ideas allowing a safe hiding place, and somewhere to trap the enemy. When better construction technologies became available, the walls and fortresses evolved from wooden to stone solutions or passing from structures aimed to keep at bay infantry and attacking machines (catapults, rams, movable towers) to systems thought to protect from cannons and to use them to shoot at the attackers. After the invention and refinement of air warfare, the present evolution made it preferable to hide in structures completely underground or organized beneath large concrete shields with mimetic options. In a certain way, the fortifications seem to complete a long parabolic path, from the underground rupestrian refuge to the underground anti-nuclear facility. At the point of inversion, we can register a change in the use of natural landscape: geology is no more a limit for the project but rather a characteristic of the territory to be taken into consideration for the effectiveness of the result. The rules and choices in planning in different places were guided by fundamental options: the geology and geomorphology directly influenced the results of unconquerable citadels and the following aspect of the growing town. The genesis of the place and the development of human skills combine in a unique history that highlights the interaction between humanity and landscape. In the contribution proposed here, a selection of defensive architectures across time will be analysed in a series of reflections about the continuous balance between geology and geomorphology, human choices, practical and military purposes and the following influences on urban development.