Sun, Sep 29, 10:31 PM CDT

The Bastion of the Pussy-cat No.3

Photography Military posted on Dec 11, 2009
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Description


This is the last of the triptych on the bastion of the Gatta. The Bastion also surrounds the so-called Giardini della Rotunda (Gardens of the Round Tower), so called because it was planned around the area where a monumental suspended tank with a circular shaped base was built. It is the first water tank to be built in Padua, a prestigious work of engineering dating back to the 1920s. The decision to build the water tank and Codalunga water power plant just on this spot was due to the following events:On 11 November 1916 an Austrian bomb exploded killing 96 inhabitants who had hidden inside the gunners which were considered safe shelters. On 29 October 1919 a bomb, dropped from a plane in 1918 but unexploded until then, went off and destroyed the electric power plant causing serious water supply problems to the city. The column was erected in the late 19th century. The death of the cat is a sad one with an happy ending. According to a story the she-cat lived honored for a while, but one of the mercenary captains one day killed her by banging his head again and again against the feline. It looks that this way of killing was a form of sport at the time. Some nights later he was found dead under one of the town street porches, murdered because, according the people's voice, he had killed the cat. This is the happy end. A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall (termed curtain), facilitating active defense against assaulting troops. It allows the defenders of the fort to cover adjacent bastions and curtains with defensive fire. The bastion was designed to offer a full range on which to attack oncoming troops. Previous fortifications were of little use within a certain range. The bastion solved this problem. By using a cannon to cover the curtain side of the wall, the forward cannon could concentrate on oncoming targets. It's important to know that the current bastion of the Gatta, as the rest of the Venetian walls, was not directly involved in the siege of 1509, but was built some years immediately following the siege. The current bastion was built slightly farther south than the initial position. Begun in 1510, the work was completed in 1514 according to the design of Bartolomeo D'Alviano. Only in 1523 the arms of Leonardo Emo mayor and captain Francesco Donato were affixed. The tower had 54 gunboats now buried by filling the pit, but you can still see the two "cats" inserted in the wall, one of them with shield and lion and the other with a mouse between her paws. Originally these sculptures were not visible as close as today, as the bastion was surrounded by a wide and deep moat, filled in mid-nineteenth century for the construction of the driveway. Most of the structure of the bastion is therefore buried today. Thank you for your kind comments.

Comments (39)


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Minda

2:18PM | Sat, 12 December 2009

Great narrative and great scene sandra..

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virginiese

2:37PM | Sat, 12 December 2009

excellent ! great light and capture here !

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Digitaleagle

11:58PM | Sat, 12 December 2009

Excellent capture!!

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Nickieboy2004

7:45AM | Sun, 13 December 2009

Very nice shot!

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Richardphotos

9:00AM | Sun, 13 December 2009

the focus is very good and you done a good job on replacing the sky

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0rest4wicked

9:43AM | Sun, 13 December 2009

great narrative and photo

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mickeyrony

3:55PM | Sun, 13 December 2009

Sublime and documentation well done. Cheer still and mile mercies. Always an excellent work. THe class my Beautiful ((5++)) Sublime et la documentation bien faite . Bravo encore et mile mercis . Toujours un excellent travail . La classe ma Belle ((5++))

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danapommet

9:32PM | Sat, 19 December 2009

As a military historian, I have enjoyed your trilogy very much. Very well done Sandra. Dana

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PSDuck

1:39AM | Sun, 21 February 2010

Wow! What a history!

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