Jacobo Palear Fratín - History Lab https://historylab.es Wed, 18 May 2022 14:45:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://historylab.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-icono-historylab-32x32.jpg Jacobo Palear Fratín - History Lab https://historylab.es 32 32 View of the town square of Fuenterrabía, its surroundings, and the state of the French camp, in the siege of 1638 https://historylab.es/view-of-the-town-square-of-fuenterrabia-its-surroundings-and-the-state-of-the-french-camp-in-the-siege-of-1638/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=view-of-the-town-square-of-fuenterrabia-its-surroundings-and-the-state-of-the-french-camp-in-the-siege-of-1638 Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/vista-de-la-plaza-de-la-ciudad-de-fuenterrabia-sus-cercanias-y-estado-del-campo-frances-en-el-sitio-del-ano-1638/ Image showing the walled enclosure of the city of Fuenterrabía, during the French siege of 1638

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]]> During the second half of the 16th century, the fortification of Fuenterrabía was redesigned by the military engineer Jacobo Palear Fratín, designing a pentagonal citadel in the same style as the one built in Pamplona, enveloping the existing medieval defensive belt with a modern one to allow for a larger scale and artillery capacity. The medieval wall was preserved mainly due to the conditioning factors of the terrain, as it could not be directly adapted to the new needs.
The original elevation of the fortress made it impossible to establish surfaces suitable for the armament needs of the time. Successive bastions were built around the medieval wall, until the middle of the 17th century when Fuenterrabía was besieged by French troops and work was rushed, leaving the enclosure with the characteristics that can be seen in the representative image from 1638.

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]]> Royal engineer Fratín’s project for Fuenterrabía in 1572 https://historylab.es/royal-engineer-fratins-project-for-fuenterrabia-in-1572/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=royal-engineer-fratins-project-for-fuenterrabia-in-1572 Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/proyecto-del-ingeniero-real-fratin-para-fuenterrabia-en-1572/ Plan proposed by Fratín to reinforce Fuenterrabía according to correspondence with the Cortes in the 16th century

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]]> Fuenterrabía demonstrated its great defensive power during the battles of the early 16th century, culminating in 1524 when the Castilian troops managed to recover it from the Franco-Navarrese army. In 1539 Charles V visited the damaged fortifications of Fuenterrabía, and shortly afterwards sent Captain Luis Pizaño to supervise the works in this square and in those of San Sebastián and Pamplona. One of the first actions was to raise the bastion of La Reina and the bastion of San Nicolás in 1545, partially modernising the fortified enclosure of the square.
During the reign of Philip II, work continued in the north of the peninsula, especially in Pamplona. These amazing works temporarily withdrew the focus of attention from Fuenterrabía, and its improvement work ceased until 1572, when a section of the old wall collapsed due to lack of maintenance. This caused Philip II to order his engineer Jacobo Palear Fratín to carefully analyse the square and give his verdict, which turned out to be rather unfavourable.
Under the king’s command, Fratín undertook a major reform project and numerous repairs. The aim was to extend the bastion in order to gain artillery capacity against the French in the east and to cover possible access from the sea. Although Fratín’s official layout is not available, the correspondence between the engineer and the Court has been analysed and a virtual reconstruction of the shape of the proposed plan has been made.

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