Carte per la difesa. I disegni degli ingegneri militari negli archivi europei. Maps for defence.Military engineers' drawings in European archives

In the modern age, the history of the European city was heavily in uenced by the construction of forti cations. In the contemporary age, the demolition of the same forti cations has conditioned the city. Nowadays European military, state and municipal archives are the custodians of the many drawings that are testament to the ways in which the necessities of war shaped the city. This has become an important archival heritage that today ought to be rediscovered, promoted and re-evaluated. From the 15th century, the most important Italian cities used drawings for military, civic, planning and tax purposes. In the same years forti ed structures became fundamental in the defence strategy of the state, and were the direct cause of the ‘revolution’ in the urban structure which at the time was still medieval. When an army attacked a city, it was necessary to know both the weak points and the strong points of the enemy.