Juan Bautista Antonelli

Castle of Santa Barbara in Alicante. Fortress of Mazalquivir (Algeria).

John Baptist Antonelli (Giovanni Battista Antonelli) was an Italian military engineer. He was born in Gatteo de Romagna in 1527 and died in Toledo in 1588.

Designed and built some bastions and military forts in Europe for the Spanish Crown during the second half of the 16th century. In 1568, King Philip II entrusted Vespasian I Gonzaga, accompanied by Antonelli, with the inspection and construction project of the fortifications of the port of the city of Cartagena, the coast of the Kingdom of Valencia and the African ports of Oran and Mazalquivir.

Within this fortification project of the Spanish and African coast, a series of coastal watchtowers are built on the coasts of Murcia and the Kingdom of Valencia and the rebuilding of the castle of Santa Bárbara in Alicante (Spain) is undertaken. in 1562, the construction of the castle of Benidorm and the guard tower of Santa Faz in Alicante in 1575, the walls that protect Peñíscola (Castellón) from the land access (1578), and the reservoir dam of Tibi (Alicante) in 1580. < / p>

From 1580 onwards, he studied the navigability of the Tagus River between Lisbon and Toledo, a project that never became a reality (there is a novel by Ricardo Sanchez Candelas about this project titled Only Sailed Its Dreams). It is important not to confuse Juan Bautista Antonelli with his younger brother Bautista Antonelli who carried out numerous fortification works in the Spanish colonies in America or with his nephew of the same name, son of Bautista and Maria de Torres, Juan Bautista Antonelli, nicknamed "El Mozo" to distinguish him from his father.

Biography of Juan Bautista Antonelli

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