The Venetian walls of Crema are an architectural construction dating back to the second half of the 15th century, built for defensive purposes.
History
Medieval walls
The origins of the city of Crema are shrouded in mystery.. Fulcheria Island appears for the first time in a document of 1040 when the bishop of Cremona Ubaldo asked Emperor Henry III the Black to entrust him with that territory, until then a fief of Boniface III.. In addition, it is known of a diploma through which in 1055 Henry III granted the districtum de Insula Fulcherii in perpetual investiture to the church of Cremona..
The Island once again became a feud of the marquises of Tuscany in 1057, specifically to Beatrice of Lorraine – second wife of Boniface, who died in 1052 – and her daughter Matilda.. The latter finally granted the Island to the Church and the Municipality of Cremona in 1098.
As for the toponym Crema, it appears as locus in 1082 and as castrum in 1084.. However, a certainty about the existence of Crema comes only in 1146 when the imperial legate Ermanno, bishop of Constance, sent a letter to the consuls, counts and people of Crema urging them to obey the bishop of Cremona.. Moreover, in 1162 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa confirmed the investiture of the castrum Cremae con burgo. to the people of Cremona, later retaining for himself the villages in the territory, a crucial piece of news since it was an indication of a settlement with a subordinate territory.
Multiple hypotheses have been posed about the shape of Crema in the period before the siege. Historian Pietro Terni suggested that the city had been fortified since the Lombard era and for centuries had three outer suburbs..
According to Dado Edallo, the suburbs extra moenia would not predate the 11th century, although the scholar does not rule out previous early medieval urban formations of religious origin,. a hypothesis that Paolo Favole refutes since churches arranged in the shape of a cross in Italy are of later date.
Finally, Carlo Piastrella hypothesizes only a partial fortification to the east, where in past centuries the toponym "Contrada del Ghirlo" was used, from "gyrus," which in medieval Latin indicated the city walls.. The other sides would have been defended by ditches and embankments that would have allowed the people of Crema to cross them with ease during the siege of 1159/1160 and supply the inhabitants and refugees through passages within the Moso swamp. As for the name Castrum Cremae cum burgo mentioned in the diploma of 1162 Piastrella identifies the village as a separate military post, probably identifiable with Borgo San Pietro, which has maintained its own characteristic urban connotation over the centuries;. in further support of this are also the chronicles of the siege which agree that the destructive fire set to the city by the imperial allied forces did not affect the supposed Borgo San Pietro, within which many fleeing besieged found refuge.
One certain element was the wide and deep moat, which, as the chronicler Ottone Morena testified, prevented the approach of imperial war machines, and it was only with the contribution of a large quantity of earth and under the shelter of "cats" and "tortoises" (siege engines) that the besiegers were gradually able to approach the fortifications.
From reconstruction to the arrival of the Venetians
With a diploma dated February 11, 1185, in Reggio, in the presence of the consuls of Crema Domerto Benzoni, Rogerio de Osio and Benzo Bonsignori, the rebuilding of the city was granted.. According to historian Pietro Terni, after the erection of ditches and trenches to counter Cremonese skirmishes,. a new city wall with 21 towers was erected between 1190 and 1199. In addition to the four gates Serio, Ombriano, Ripalta and Pianengo with their towers the enclosure counted a fifth minor gateway, the gate (or postern) of Ponfure dependent on Porta Pianengo.. The toponym seems to have originated at the time of the siege, when the people of Crema during a sortie forced a group of besiegers to fall back along the walls; the tenacious resistance of one of them, named Furio, earned him perpetual memory;. in fact, nowadays the Ponte Furio street that connects Via XX Settembre with Via Giuseppe Verdi still exists.
After the reconstruction, the castrum was divided into 27 vicinie (or neighborhoods) that took the names of the families of feudal and comital tradition that held the power of the commune... Again according to Terni Crema was expanded on every side except to the north. However, according to Carlo Piastrella, only moats and embankments were built.
Certain records from those centuries include the erection of the castles of Porta Serio (1335) and Porta Ombriano (1361), the latter commissioned by Bernabò Visconti and demolished by the Venetians in 1451..
During the brief seigniory of the Benzoni family, Giorgio, who came to power in 1405, had the contado fortified with a series of watchtowers (some of which still exist, transformed or incorporated into other buildings).. In the city, the cathedral bell tower served as the main observation point, where two or three guards paid by the municipality were stationed.. This fortified network is well documented on the Desegnio de Crema et del Cremascho, the oldest extant map of the territory, which can also be consulted in reproduction on ceramic tiles at the Civic Museum of Crema, a work created by Gianetto Biondini in 1966.
Venetian walls
Construction
In February 1449 a Venetian troop led by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta laid siege to Crema, which capitulated the following September, starting the long rule under the Serenissima destined to last until 1797 (except for the brief French period of 1509–1512).
It fell to the Venetian podestà Berardo Barbarigo to act as ambassador to the people of Crema to convince them of the need for a new city wall: having invited the mayors to a banquet he convinced them, appealing to their pride and vanity, to take on one-third of the funding of 36,000 ducats,. although he later increased the cost estimate to 120,000 ducats..
Within a solemn ceremony on May 24, 1488, work began with the rebuilding of the Ombriano Gate, and then continued until 1498, alternating the construction of the southern and northern sectors. The work continued until 1509 with the completion of the excavation of the moat and the completion of the inner embankment. No military engineers were called in to direct the work, but it was entrusted first to Giovanantonio De Marchi from Crema and then to Venturino Moroni from Bergamo.
At the conclusion of the reconstruction, the walls contemplated the four gates:. of Ombriano, Pianengo (sometimes also called Porta Nova),. Serio and Ripalta; in addition, the walls were divided by eight towers thus named: Torrion del Berardo, Torrion di S.to Giorgio, Torrion del Foscolo, Torrion del Paradiso, Torrion di Santa Maria, Torrion di S.to Bertolameo, Torrion del Pavaro, Torrion di S.to Marco.
16th century
In 1508, confronted with fears of invasion following the stipulation of the Anti-Venetian League of Cambrai, the moats were strengthened and enlarged and the guards increased. All male citizens of Crema over the age of sixteen were called to work on reinforcing the counter-ditches.. The outcome of the Battle of Agnadello (1509) resulted in the French conquest.
Three years later with the contribution of the condottiere Renzo da Ceri Crema returned to Venetian hands.. Bribing the French commander Guido Pace Bernardi in return for a fee, the people of Crema willingly opened their doors to the condottiero to free themselves from an invader who enforced taxes, oppression and robbery. However, political front reversals led to a new siege in 1514 by a coalition between the Duchy of Milan, the Spanish Empire and the Old Swiss Confederacy; to defend the city, Renzo da Ceri had all the isolated buildings around the walls knocked down, had the ditches lowered and settled in the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Croce turned into a fort. On the night of August 25, 1514, there was the final assault of Renzo da Ceri's troops in the camp of the Sforzeschi and the Swiss at Ombriano, routing them and finally freeing the Crema region from the invading forces.
Already a few years later, however, doubts began to be expressed about the defensive efficiency of the city;. it was especially the introduction of the new offensive techniques based on the use of gunpowder that was the most important critical issue encountered by the relators in those years since that of Governor Sforza Pallavicino in 1548.
17th and 18th centuries
The situation was revealed in all its drama at the time of the political crisis that began in 1606 with the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the Venetian Republic and the Church State and the real possibility of the entry of Spain into the battlefield in support of the pope.. The Venetian province of Crema was practically an exclave surrounded by the State of Milan and was being militarized through massive enlistment of manpower, reinforcement of border surveillance and provision of extensive artillery.. In 1606 the general superintendent in the mainland Lorenzo Priuli arrived in Crema on inspection, who observed with distress the inadequacy of the city walls.
A map from a few years later shows some of the interventions: these are fortifications outside the castle, at the ravelins of the gates and the towers of the enclosure. It is not dated, but it is signed by the distinguished military engineer Francesco Tansini (1580–1638, of Crema origin) and dated in all probability around the year 1620. It is inferred from the caption that it was Tansini himself who was responsible for rebuilding the interventions undertaken earlier by Marcello Alessandrini.Crema, pen and ink drawing with watercolor, c. 1620, in the Treviso Public Library
Several times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries projects for adaptation and improvement were proposed: these were sometimes radical, sometimes innovative interventions, but the substantial public funding that would be required was the greatest deterrent to their concreteness.. One project by Tansini, among many others, is of particular interest: it is a signed but undated map (probably made around 1630) that envisaged the construction of a pentagonal citadel northwest of the city, toward the Moso marsh. The same also provided for a fortified area to the south, between the walls and the Cresmiero, intended as a refuge for the people of the contado in case of war.Crema, pen and ink drawing with watercolor, c. 1630, in the Treviso Public Library
Filippo Verneda's Relatione della città di Crema, dated April 15, 1683, meticulously describes Crema's fortifications and does not fail to expose their shortcomings: works that were too small, design flaws (e.g., the lack of space to create an embankment on the lunette of Porta Ombriano). the embankment of unequal height and too close to the dwellings, and many others.Filippo Verneda, Relatione della città di Crema, manoscritto conservato presso la Biblioteca comunale di Treviso
In a 1771 annotation, podestà Angelo Giustinian wrote how at "the Foscolo station" there was a breach that favored overpassing and thus the nocturnal entry of thugs and the practice of smuggling..
19th century In 1803 the Cisalpine Republic decreed Crema an "Open City,". initiating the new urban reorganization; with a resolution of March 12, 1804, it was determined that the gates should be demolished.. While Porta Ripalta and Porta Pianengo were bricked up, for Porta Serio and Porta Ombriano the architect Faustino Rodi was entrusted with their renovation; the Cremonese architect, who was already overseeing the work on the new bridge over the Cresmiero in Crema, opted for a total neoclassical makeover.