I am doing a university architectural project which is proposing a flood defense system in Zurich and thusly I am looking into the historical defensive architecture of the city by way of precedent.
Can someone please explain the reasoning for this shape which is common throughout European cities? Does it have a name?
In citadels which employ a similar shape I understand it is so you can be on the flank of an attacking forces, but looking at the linked map the shape doesn't seem to provide much of a flank at this bigger - city - scale. Surely they could just try to breach the walls at the "points" of the walls rather than the inner corners which would be slightly flanked from above by the defenders?
Many thanks.
That's what's called trace italienne. The system relies on low, thick, sloping walls to absorb artillery fire and the "star" shape allows the defenders to rake any point of the fortifications with crossfire. The points of the star are still vulnerable, yes, but less so than a rounded shape. I get your point about this possibily not scaling up that well, but the basic principle still holds.
Also remember, trace italienne has multiple layers so even if they storm one of the points, you still have defenders further back able to rake the ramparts with fire.
