The city walls
The development of the narrow area east of Castelgrande, originally
used only as a market place and point of transit, into a fortified
town (city by local standards) almost certainly took place before
the mid13th century; since neither the buildings nor the road network
of today's old town centre show any signs of successive extensions
of the city walls, it is safe to say that the configuration of the
late medieval walls still standing coincides with that of the more
ancient defensive structures.
Contrary to other cities, in which the fortifications are arranged
concentrically around the inhabited area, Belllinzona's walls consist
of two separate parts. Their extremities stretch up the hillside
to join the fortresses of Castelgrande and Montebello in such a way
that it is difficult to see where the city walls end and where the
external fortifications of the castles begin. The north wall, which
ends with a tower at the foot of the rock on which Castelgrande stands,
is not directly connected with the castle wall.
Whilst the latter stretches straight up from the rock to Montebello
Castle, the south wall forms a wide arch encircling the areas of
the town situated south of Piazza Nosetto. The suburb called Orico
(with the Urseline Convent on the site of the present-day seat of
the Cantonal Parliament) lay outside the fortifications.
The original walls, 60 per cent of which are still standing today,
have been quite radically modified during the last hundred years,
both by restoration work of varying quality, and by the demolition
of some sections to allow for the passage of pedestrians and vehicles;
in the south wall, the former position of the demolished parts is
visible along quite a long stretch of the road.
The loss of all three of the city gates demolished in the 19th century
is particularly regrettable. We can get some idea of what they looked
like in the Middle Ages from a few rather inaccurate illustrations,
and from a fourth gate in the western stretch of the south wall,
which climbs up to Castelgrande. Before the advent of modern roads,
the main access to the castle was through this very gate: a square
tower protruding from the wall, with swallowtail merlons over a machicolated
parapet. Traces of grooves for a drawbridge remain to show that the
tower was protected by a moat on the outer side. The passageway through
the tower has an arched roof; today the upper part of the tower is
open on the inner side.
The three demolished gates were probably slightly higher and apparently protected
by barbicans. The only gate in the north wall, situated at the end of via Codeborgo,
was called the German or Codeborgo gate. Originally the south walls also had
only one gate: the Lugano Gate, which opened onto Piazza San Rocco, the present
day Piazza lndependenza. The Locarno Gate, or New Gate, in the south-western
stretch of the walls, was presumably only opened after the development of the
suburb of Orico in the late Middle Ages. The city gate in the auxiliary tower
to the west of Piazza ndependenza is more recent.
The present-day appearance of Bellinzona's walls can be attributed to building
work carried out in 1475-80, when the previously existing walls were raised and
equipped with machicolations and swallowtail merlons. The towers (five, including
the gates in the north part and thirteen in the south part) were also raised
and strengthened; they were also protected by machicolations, and most of them
had emplacements supported by arches, suitable for small cannon.
In the survivng sections of the south and north walls, some parts of an older
wall are visible, with closely ranked and lowerplaced swallowtail merlons; these
possibly date back to the reconstruction of the wall, which apparently took place
in the mid-14th century, when the city's fortifications already reached up to
Montebello.
The moats below the walls essential on flat terrain devoid of natural
protection from the enemy, such as a steep rock face have completely
vanished.
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