English
Wall and Castle
Asilah [Arzila], North Africa, Marocco
Military Architecture
Before the end of the 15th century the Portuguese opted for the execution of a cutting that divided the city into two basically equal parts, excluding the section further from the sea and extending over the plain. Portuguese Asilah was reduced to 45% of the Islamic region they inherited, preserving the coastal strip that was indispensable for the strategy of maintenance of the settlement. A new wall, made of stone and earth, drew a secant line across the bastions today known as Tambalalão and Holy Cross. It consisted of a linear wall, supported by a a barbican but did not result in the total demolition of the old Arab walls. At the time of the siege Asilah was still divided into the “old town”, the section of the city excluded by the cutting, the “new town”, the Portuguese city and by the castle, the fortified stronghold.
The cutting introduced an alternative rationale to the urban ensemble, now defined by two overlaid geometric shapes, roughly rectangular. The direction of the work seems secondary, although we know that Álvaro Tristão was appointed inspector of works in Asilah in 1472, Rodrigo Anes was appointed master of the works for the territories of Africa in 1473, and Vicente de Avelar was also appointed inspector of the works of the town in 1484. Nonetheless, the occupation and transformation of the preexisting city was not only a response to a higher imperative, but also to a tradition that was being consolidated in North Africa.
When Asilah was irreversibly surrounded by the army from Fes in 1508 the town was lost and people fled to the castle. The response of King Manuel I was to send the famous master builder Diogo Boytac in 1509. He remained there until the following year, sufficient time for the elaboration of a general plan of works based on three main vectors for the sustainability and consolidation of the Portuguese garrison: the reinforcement of the walls, particularly those of the cutting; the symbolic presence of the castle; the urban consolidation of the town. In 1511 the Biscay-born master Francisco Danzilho travelled to Asilah with 300 workers in order to execute the plans of Boytac who returned three years later to assess the construction with his clerk Bastião Luiz. The main part of the works of these three years was in the castle area, its buildings and fortified precinct, on the Stream and Town gates and upon the walls facing the sea; these are still essential elements of the Portuguese built legacy in this city.
The review began with the inspection of the work on the houses of the countess, separate though formally connected to those of the count, built on an L-shaped plan with a sea front corresponding to the perimeter of the castle (the countess’s houses) and a façade fronting the town square with some windows of Manueline decoration which disappeared after restorations in the last century (count’s houses). Now all that remains, although changed, is a small cylindrical tower that was next to the countess’s lodgings and about 11 corbels from the neighbouring Tower of the Alcaide-Mor.
The whole piece of land that follows the outline of the castle from the Beach’s Bastion doubling back to the Holy Cross’ Bastion to the Town’s Gate was reinforced by an abutment of which only the encasement has survived. The castle ended with the cylindrical Bell Tower which was connected to the quadrangular Keep and the Captain’s House by a wall based on a continuous cavetto and pierced by the Castle ́s Gate. A stretch on the Keep side has been preserved although without the original openings into the Count’s House.
The design of the cutting was remodelled according to the latest techniques of military architecture. Between the Holy Cross’ Bastion and the Tanbalalão Bastion the fortified wall now exhibited three inflexions or indentations in order to outflank fire and enable the defence of the straight segments from north to south: the first of these indentations was in the parapet walk of the castle; the second where the bastion salient met the Town Gate (present day Bab Hauma), a machine of active defense with a powerful row of embrasures on the first floor above the elbow-shaped tunnel to the gate that still displays the coat of arms of King Manuel I; the third indentation corresponded to the Bastion/Square Tower of António da Fonseca. Between these fortified stretches the wall consisted of a vertical section topped with narrow battlements and pierced by loopholes on a lower level. Below it, a solid cavetto or escarpment rose from the moat that followed the wall, interrupted only by the drawbridge of the gate mentioned above.
One of the major investments of Boytac’s project was in the sea front to the town, particularly its north-eastern extremities near the Stream Gate, and the south-western end, to reinforce the barbette. A new barbette, slightly doubling over the north-western wall of the town enabled fire on ships or attackers from the sea. At the intersection of the barbette and the wall stood the Barbette Bastion, a lookout point and protection for the land flank. Near the Stream Gate the conception was based on the articulation between two structures: a platform known as the Miradouro (Belvedere) and a pincer-shaped bastion named Paw or Spider Leg Bastion, which took its name from its shape. Nowadays its reduced extension does not do justice to the technological advance it introduced, resembling a pincer for attacking the flanks with five openings for bombardiers.
Between the new battlement and the Spider Leg Bastion a new bastion faced the sea which, being opposite the Monastery of Saint Francis, was called the Friars or Saint Francis’ Bastion. It was a structure similar to a battlement, with a cylindrical turret on its tip, enabling fire over the adjoining curtain walls and breaking the long stretch of the town sea wall.
The walled route of Asilah had the following designations at its most prominent points: Keep; Tower of the Alcaide-Mor; Albacar Gate; Beach Bastion; Holy Cross’ Bastion; Bell Tower (present day Pite João Bastion); Fes or Town Gate and Bastion/Square Tower of António da Fonseca; Bastion of Tambalalão; Battlement’s Bastion/Tower; Battlement; Saint Francis or Friars’ Bastion; Paw or Spider Leg Bastion; Mirador; Stream Gate.