Fortress
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The fortress of San Leo
is undoubtly the most well-known in the Dukedom; It enjoys a
great fame as a military bulwark, unconquerable less for its
fortifications than for its extraordinary geographical position.
Nevertheless, this fortress too, necessitated remarkable
restoration works during the course of the centuries, both
because of the continuous landslides and the ambition to keep it
always perfectly efficient. It was known as the "eternal
object of contention" between the families of Malatesta and
Montefeltro in the arshest land of their borders. The time of the
fortress's first constrction is unknown, but surely it was during
the Longobard age. The old body of the fortress dates to the time
of the Malatestas, who restored and modified it. However, only
under Federico the fortress underwent substantial changes. This
happened around the second half of the 1470s at the same time of
the fortress of Cagli, or at least few years before.
Infact in the fortress
of San Leo the traditional round towers with corbels and
machicolations exist together with the elbow-shaped walls which
mark the giving up of the round walls experienced in the fortress
of Sassocorvaro. The fortress bears the traces of the architect
Francesco di Giorgio Martini's first work in the territory of the
Montefeltros.
Martini's work is
manifest in two ways: from one side there was a felt need to
fortify an important border bulwark, on the other the fortress is
very similar to the fortress of Volterra against which Federico
fought in 1472. Martini had done some work in that fortress which
was similar to the one of San Leo, enclosed by walls and
delimited by a cliff. The fortress presents itself in a single
block with the extremes in the shape of a triangle. In comparison
with other fortresses in the Montefeltro territory, San Leo had a
different fortune, because it escaped the demolitions ordered by
Guidobaldo during the war against Valentino (1502).
In comparison with
other fortresses in the Montefeltro territory, San Leo had a
different fortune, because it escaped the demolitions ordered by
Guidobaldo during the war against Valentino (1502). A proof of
the importance of San Leo resides in the painting by Vasari kept
in the Signoria Palace in Florence, picturing the assault to the
fortress in 1516, during the brief conflict between the Della
Roveres and the Medicis. After that the land passed under the
rule of the Church (1631), the fortress tied its fame less to its
function of military defence than to that of prison.
After the 1789
earthquake and because of the many landslides, Valadier worked on
the enforcement of the prison and rebuilt the round northern
tower, which had completely slided.
From Gianni Volpe, Rocche e fortificazioni del Ducato di Urbino
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