FORTE CULTURA Tourist Guide Book

28 \\ TOURIST GUIDE BOOK EXPERIENCE CULTURAL HERITAGE TRAVEL ARCHITECTURE CITADELS Petersberg Citadel, Erfurt [DE] , shelter of the Mainz bishops T he word “citadel” has become synonymous with the notion of “last refuge”. That matches its original purpose: Similar to the keep in medieval castles, the citadel formed a second defensive bulwark as an autonomous island within a fortress. That is why they were made as strong as possible. Only soldiers were stationed there. Citadels are built as polygonal structures (as squares or pentagons), reinforced at the corners by bastions, and situated in strategically advantageous positions, often on elevated ground. The name citadel comes from the Italian “cittadella” (little city) and empha- sises spatial and military integrity. Citadels were chiefly installed as additional reinforcement in places where the main thrust of an attack was feared or where a weak point of a fortress had been identified. That can be seen just as impressively in Alessandria in northern Italy as in Dömitz, Erfurt, Mainz or Jülich. Owing to their exposure, citadels are often used today as event locations, such as in Berlin-Spandau. Absolutist rulers also used the citadels as strongholds to control the surrounding territory. They enabled cities that were regarded as politically untrustworthy to be put under pressure and for uprisings to be quelled. Citadels Compact bulwarks – fortress in a fortress A small fortification, mostly with four or five bastions, within a fortified city, either independently or as part of the city’s ring of defences as the last avenue of retreat and as a nucleus of resistance for the garrison and defenders. Occasionally they were also built for the purpose of controlling a city.