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Palmanova

Nine-Point Star
Fortress CitiesPlanned Capitals
Portrait

Venice founded Palmanova in 1593 as a purely theoretical exercise: a nine-pointed star fortress laid out by military engineers so that every bastion covered its neighbours, with radial streets converging on a hexagonal square. The design worked so well that nobody attacked it, and the Venetians had to offer pardoned criminals free land to persuade anyone to live there.

Nearby in the atlas
Gorizia / Nova Gorica — A Square Cut in HalfTrieste — Harbour of an EmpireVenice — Republic on WaterCortina d'Ampezzo — Queen of the Dolomites
If you like this city
Zamość, Poland — Padua of the North
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