St. Nicholas' Fortress (drone), Šibenik, Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe

The fortress of St. Nicholas is a sea fort located near the town of Sibenik, in central Dalmatia, Croatia. The fort of San Nicolò was built by the Republic of Venice in the 16th century on the island of Ljuljevac, which is located in front of the lighthouse of the Punta Sant'Andrea beach (rt Jadrija), on the side left (southern) of the outlet of the sea channel of St. Anthony (kanal Sv. Ante), which leads to the city of Sibenik. The Renaissance structure is one of the rare examples of triangular-shaped fortification, as well as one of the first realizations of the so-called horn or pincer work. Since 9 July 2017 the fortress of San Nicolò has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site within the transnational site of Venetian defense works between the 16th and 17th centuries: State from Land-State from West Sea. The fort was named after the Benedictine monastery of St. Nicholas which was located on the islet and which was destroyed to build the fortification. Before the construction of the fort there were also two medieval towers (also demolished) placed on the sides of the St. Antony canal, from which a chain with iron blades was laid to prevent unwanted entry of ships and boats. The reasons that led to the construction of the fortress were the consequence of the fall of the city of Scardona into the hands of the Turks in 1522: this conquest allowed the Ottomans a convenient position for their maritime connections within the territory already conquered and in particular for trade and export of raw materials. Given the progress of Turkish expansion, the city and the port of Sibenik were evidently under threat, being one of the strategically most important Venetian cities on the Adriatic coast. Sibenik was in fact considered a safe port city, since it can only be accessed through the only entrance consisting of the long channel of St. Antony that leads to the Sibenik bay: for this reason the Republic of Venice decided to build a new fortress to defend the canal. The first proposal to build a fortress dates back to 1524 and on April 30, 1525, at the request of the population of Sibenik, the Venetian captain Aloisio De Canal decided to build a fort on the island of Ljuljevac in order to prevent the arrival of Turkish ships. Ottoman. However, for the start of the works, it was necessary to wait for the arrival in Dalmatia in 1540 of the Venetian military engineers Michele Sanmicheli and his nephew Giangirolamo, who had the foundation laid for the fort. In particular, the latter designed a defense plan that included both the improvement of the existing fortification system and the construction of new defensive structures, including a new one to be built on the island of Ljuljevac. The new defensive plans were immediately accepted by the Venetian authorities, given that the priority was to defend the city from the threat that could come from the sea, and construction work on the fortress of St. Nicholas began in the same year 1540 and ended in 1547. The monastery of St. Nicholas was demolished, while the homonymous church was replaced by a new chapel built in the northwestern corner of the fortress terrace. The fortress was armed with 32 cannons, although the imposing appearance and size represented a greater threat to the enemy than artillery.