During the War of the Spanish Succession, the allied troops carried out important fortification work in Alicante. By applying a bastioned line, they modified the line of defence of Alicante compared to the previous ones of Charles V, which resulted in a too static defence against an attack of a certain size, as the French troops demonstrated when they assaulted the city from the inside without great difficulty. The defences had been designed with a great deal of effort, and rather than a compact bastioned belt, it ended up as a thin wall with no interior ramparts.
One of the first French objectives was to build a new defensive layout that was more in line with the new military tactics of the time. The works, although they were never completed, were aimed at improving the previous irregular layout and dealing with its poor construction, giving Alicante’s fortifications a new defensive appearance. In the documents found, the most immediate repairs after taking the city are listed, including the repair of the walls and bastions, raising the parapets and making them 18 feet thick, once again pointing out the weakness of the previous constructions.
Outside the 16th-century enclosure, a seven-foot-high earthen trench with a bench was proposed to repel any possible landings, which, if the situation overtook them, would be helped by raising the height of the walls to the same level as the bastions and thus prevent the English from finding weak points, as they did when they managed to take the city.

Collection: Images

Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 6. Under a cloak of terror: violence and armed conflict in Europe.

Chronology: XVIII

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University, Postgraduate

Link: http://www.tiemposmodernos.org/tm3/index.php/tm/article/view/289

Resource type: Image

Format: Map

Source: González, A. B. (2012). "Mejoras en las fortificaciones abaluartadas de Alicante durante la Guerra de Sucesión", en Tiempos modernos, nº 25, p. 18.

Language: Spanish

Date: 1709

Owner: Roberto José Alcalde López (Modernalia)

Copyright: ©Tiempos Modernos ©Ángel Benigno González Avilés

Abstract: Plan of Alicante between 1708 and 1709 showing the work carried out to fortify its bastions during the War of the Spanish Succession

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