“Non serve, non servirà mai di niente”. La cittadella di Asti: il progetto, gli errori, la demolizione

Charles Emmanuel I and Victor Amadeus I, led to some major constructions aimed at consolidating its defence, in the mountains and plains, by building and strengthening “modern” and efficient fortresses. In the mid-thirties, a large square-shaped citadel with four huge pentagonal bastions without orillons was built in the city of Asti. It was not linked to the city walls and did not strengthen the older defensive structures; it was located in the plain to the south-east of the city, in the area between the southern walls and the course of the Tanaro river. The design immediately attracted attention both in defensive terms (demonstrated by the visit reports of Carlo di Castellamonte and the drawings of Carlo Morello) and on a celebratory level. In fact, the view of the city of Asti with its new citadel was rightly included in two of the most important decorative cycles frescoed in those very years, the room of architectural Magnificence at the Valentino Castle in Turin and the hall of Victor Amadeus I at Palazzo Taffini d’Acceglio in Savigliano. This instant critical success, reiterated in the table dedicated to Asti published in the Theatrum Sabaudiae (Amsterdam, 1682), was not, however, reflected in the actual success of the project, which was immediately subject to numerous criticisms. These included, above all, Carlo Morello who, in the Avvertimenti sopra le fortezze di S.R.A. (1656), illustrated the difficulties encountered in attacking the city in order to take it from the Spanish due to the incorrect position in which the citadel had been built, too distant and poorly connected. The various problems outlined above led to its early demolition just forty years after the project: when the Theatrum immortalised Asti among its engravings, the citadel had already been demolished.