Antwerp Citadel ( Spanish : Castillo de Amberes , Dutch : Kasteel van Antwerpen ) was a pentagonal bastion fort built to defend and dominate the city of Antwerp in the early stages of the Dutch Revolt . It has been described as "doubtlesse the most matchlesse piece of modern Fortification in the World" and as "one of the most studied urban installations of the sixteenth century".
5-738: The citadel was designed by the Italian engineer Francesco Paciotto and built on the orders of the Duke of Alva . Initial construction was completed in 1572. After the Sack of Antwerp (1576) the citizens partially demolished the fortification, but it was reconstructed after the Fall of Antwerp (1585). The citadel saw action towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars , when it was defended by determined Bonapartists. The Siege of Antwerp (1814) continued for
10-586: A month after Napoleon's abdication. After the Belgian Revolution of 1830, Dutch forces remained in control of the citadel until the Siege of Antwerp (1832) . Demolition began in 1874 and was completed in 1881. The site became a new neighbourhood of the city, Zuid , in which the most prominent construction was the new building for the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp . In Spanish the title of
15-590: The governor of the citadel was Castellano de Amberes ("Castellan of Antwerp"). In the Sint-Joriskerk there is still a brotherhood called Our Lady of the Citadel ( Dutch : Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van het Kasteel ). 51°12′30″N 4°23′34″E / 51.208425000000005°N 4.392738888888888°E / 51.208425000000005; 4.392738888888888 Francesco Paciotto Pietro Francesco Tagliapietra known as Francesco Paciotto (1521 - 1591)
20-619: Was an Italian military and civil architect, born and died in Urbino . He was a pupil of Girolamo Genga at Urbino, before going to Rome to attend fhe Vitruvian Academy. He worked in Emilia for Farnese where Ottavio , second Duke of Parma and Piacenza, charged him for the first project, in 1558, of the Farnese palace in Piacenza . Following the wife of Duke Ottavio, Margaret of Austria who
25-496: Was appointed by Philip II of Spain governor of Flanders, he moved from Italy to Flanders where he built the citadel of Antwerp . Back to Italy he worked in Lucca where he contributed to design the fortified walls of the city. The Duke of Alba commissioned Bartolomeo Campi to design improvements to Paciotto's work at Antwerp, but these were not carried out. This article about an Italian architect or firm of architects
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