{
  "author": "ChronologiaOS editorial guides",
  "date": "2026-10-09",
  "department": "Kingdoms & Monuments",
  "department_id": "KINGDOMS",
  "epistemic_label": "Source guide",
  "epistemic_status": "SOURCE_GUIDE",
  "period": "1580\u20131864 CE",
  "place": "Europe, the Americas, and Japan",
  "public_sources": [
    {
      "publisher": "Comune di Palmanova",
      "title": "Storia della Fortezza",
      "type": "Official site history",
      "url": "https://www.comune.palmanova.ud.it/it/territorio-2802/storia-della-fortezza-3654"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "Fortress Bourtange",
      "title": "History of Bourtange",
      "type": "Official site history",
      "url": "https://en.bourtange.nl/history-of-Bourtange/"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "U.S. National Park Service",
      "title": "Who Built the Castillo?",
      "type": "Official site history",
      "url": "https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/who-built-the-castillo.htm"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "U.S. National Park Service",
      "title": "History of Fort McHenry",
      "type": "Official site history",
      "url": "https://home.nps.gov/fomc/learn/historyculture/history-of-fort-mchenry.htm"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "Japan National Tourism Organization",
      "title": "Goryokaku Fort",
      "type": "Official site history",
      "url": "https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/1904/"
    }
  ],
  "publication_state": "PUBLIC",
  "read_time": "4 min read",
  "sections": [
    {
      "body": "The municipality of Palmanova records that the first stone of its fortress was laid on 7 October 1593 and attributes the project to Venetian military engineers, including Giulio Savorgnan. The research record notes that the town was founded on an open plain, with no inherited predecessor.",
      "heading": "Start with a founding date",
      "source": 0
    },
    {
      "body": "Fortress Bourtange's history states that construction was ordered in 1580 and the fortress erected in 1593, and that a modern reconstruction began in the 1960s. The appearance you see today mixes construction history with reconstruction history; the record keeps those separate.",
      "heading": "Orders, construction, and rebuilding",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "body": "The U.S. National Park Service records that ground was broken for the Castillo de San Marcos on 2 October 1672 under the engineer Ignacio Daza, and that it was declared finished in 1695. A named engineer and dated phases make this a strong documentary control case.",
      "heading": "A named engineer, phased work",
      "source": 2
    },
    {
      "body": "Fort McHenry's history gives an earlier Fort Whetstone from the American Revolution, then expansion into a permanent brick and stone fort between 1798 and 1803. A single date attached to a photograph would hide that sequence.",
      "heading": "A fort with a predecessor",
      "source": 3
    },
    {
      "body": "Goryokaku in Japan, completed in 1864 to a design by Takeda Ayasaburo influenced by Vauban, is the latest case here. Similar geometry across three centuries and four continents: does that look like one lost builder, or a transmitted engineering system? Say what evidence would distinguish them.",
      "heading": "A question to carry forward",
      "source": 4
    }
  ],
  "short_title": "Who built the star forts?",
  "slug": "star-forts-what-the-construction-records-say",
  "summary": "Bastioned fortresses look alike from the air, which invites sweeping claims. Read five documented construction histories and see how different their dates and builders are.",
  "tags": [
    "Star forts",
    "Fortification",
    "Palmanova",
    "Bourtange",
    "Goryokaku"
  ],
  "title": "Star forts: what the construction records say."
}