La Puglia e la minaccia dal mare: torri, castelli e masserie fortificate. Rilievo e rappresentazione visuale delle difese della linea di costa adriatica

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Apulia assumes a border position between East and West. This brings advantages for trade and cultural exchanges with the other side of the Adriatic, but also constant threats that determine the presence of fortified works along the coast and in the immediate hinterland. From the second half of the 15th century, with the Ottoman incursions, the militarization of the coastal strip became widespread. The advent of firearms leads to a radical change in attack and defense strategies and the transformation of architectural types. Watchtowers in visual contact with each other and with the hinterland, punctuate the coast line. The castles, built close to the urban nucleus in Norman bastions, cannons and ditches. Architectures linked to the production activities are transformed into fortresses with towers, embrasures, accesses with drawbridges and high walls. The historical value of these works does not lie only in the single building, but in the network they constitute. The study of fortified architecture, in addition to the precise documentation of the works through the survey, must include the analysis of the territorial structure. Today many of these testimonies have disappeared or have been hidden by the cementation of the coast and inhabited centers, but the portolans image of the late 19th century give back an unchanged environmental picture. The intent of the contribution is to show how through the reading the long streaks of the coastline created by the Navy Hydrographic Institute, obtained from points of view on the open sea, it is possible to reconstruct the visual suggestion that any assailants may perceive approaching to the mainland. The tools and methods adopted by the19th century surveyors will also be examined closely to obtain photo-realistic images with attention to details, using a perspective machine placed on the ship decks.