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 In
his letter of 1553 to Domenico Bollani, Giulio Savorgnan describes
the strong points of Friuli’s borders: Sacile to the West, Marano
to the South, Osoppo to the North; leaving one compass point,
perhaps the most dangerous, unprotected because Gradisca the
fortress built by the Republic in 1479 to the East so “that
this Friuli is very well defended” had ceased to be Venetian
many years before, passing under the Empire in 1511. Like Gorizia,
that had gone to the Habsburgs at the death of the last count,
Leonard (d.1500). Therefore a bulwark was needed in the east
as the area between Gorizia and Gradisca was undoubtedly “the
great gateway to Italy for Turk and German alike”. Turkish threats
were, in fact, the Venetians’ excuse for building a mighty fortress
which, above all, would keep at bay the ambitions of a troublesome
neighbour. The site was chosen by Veneto engineers and functionaries
who, having completed their inspections, met in Strassoldo in
the autumn of 1593. This historic moment is described for us
by one of the local castellans, Ettore, who writes in his memoirs
that on the 14 October 1593 the signoria of Venice sent its
representatives to Friuli to build a fortress and they came
to Strassoldo that day, staying in his castle. Having visited
many places, on the 16th of the above-mentioned month they finally
decided, being so advised by their “war lords”, to build the
fortress of Palma “according to the design” of Giulio Savorgnan
“general of artillery” of the Venetian signoria; this decision
was taken in “the room with a Stone staircase”.
The new fortress
of Palma (later called “la nuova”, the new one) was a mighty
presence, covering an area of around 540 campi, that stood out in
Friuli’s rather obsolete system of defence, inherited by the Republic
of Venice in 1420, with its myriad of more or less small, very old,
forts (some dated from Roman times and some were even more ancient)
which often stood guard over roads and valleys that were no longer of
any strategic importance. In any case, the old forts were not strong
enough to resist the cannons that had become ever more deadly over the
sixteenth century.
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