Forte Stella | I n Porto Ercole you can admire one of the most powerful defensive systems ever built
by men. It is composed by fifteen watch towers all around Monte Argentario, four main
fortresses, one bastion and a defensive structure of the village of Porto Ercole.
The watchtowers
The watchtowers were built by the Spanish, even on previous senese structures, to
control the sea and to sight enemy ships. The towers were constantly in touch with Porto
Ercole and with Orbetello, the capital city of the State of the Garrisons. They
communicate by mirrors during the day and by fires during the night.
Fort Filippo
It was built on the top of a hill, in front of the village, in a place where there was the
ancient monastery of Sant'Ermo. In fact the fort owes its first name (Sant'Ermo di Porto
Ercole) to that monastery.
Fort Philipp, which was completed by the architect Camerini, in 1565, is one of the
highest expressions of military architecture. It was built to protect the northern side of
the bay of Porto Ercole.
Fort of the Rocca
In 1294 a square tower was constructed by the Aldobrandeschi, where today we can see
the Rocca, over the old village of Porto Ercole. In 1487 Francesco di Giorgio Martini, a
famous architect sent to Porto Ercole by Siena, started to change the medieval shape of
the fort by adding new structures like towers, ditches and bastions. The Aldobrandesque
tower was integrated in the new southern part of the Rocca, where we can still admire its
ruins. In 1565 Buontalenti, another architect, terminated the Rocca.
Fort Stella
The construction of Fort Stella started in the mddle of the 16th century even tough the
structure of the main body refers to a previous building. This fortress, ordered by Phillip
II of Spain, was planned by military architects sent to Porto Ercole by the Medici.
The name "Stella" (star) certainly comes from the star-shaped design of the main body,
which refers to the schemes of the first italian school of military architecture, founded by
Giuliano da San Gallo (1443-1556). If you survey the fort, you can see that each side of
the star is about ten metres and the whole building was based on submultiples of ten,
according to classical architecture.
Fort Stella was built to protect the side most exposed towards the open sea.
Fort Santa Caterina and Bastion of Santa Barbara
These two fortifications protected the entrance of the port. The bastion is a sienese
smalll fort, which is beside the village of Porto Ercole and very close to the sea, from
where enemy ships were stuck hardly by cannon shots.
Fort Santa Caterina was built in the 16th century in front of the village, below Fort
Filippo to do the same thing.
The defensive structure of the village
It was began by Bertoldo Orsini iin 1376 and was terminated in the 15th century by
sienese architects, who planned two straight walls with semicircular towers, which can
still be admired.
Near the little square of Santa Barbara, there is the Governor's palace, which was built
by the rich Sienese bancker, Agostino Chiyr. This mansion, designed by Baldassarre
Peruzzi, was destroyed by the Turkish pirate Barbarossa and therefore was rebuilt under
spanish domination. During the Second World War it was seriously damaged. | 
La Grotta Azzurra
Forte Santa
Caterina
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