The Bastione

The Bastione

The Italian term bastione came to Castilian as a bastion . The conceptrefers to a bastion : a fortification that arises when two wall curtains meet. The bastions are usually made up of two flanks that make possible their link with the wall, two faces that generate a salient angle and an entrance gullet.

Its development took place during the last half of the fifteenth century and was included in the so-called Italian trace , a type of fortification that was created at that time to deal with the French army in its attempt to invade its territory. Since the French had modern cannons that could destroy medieval fortifications with great ease, an architectural innovation was necessary to reduce their chances of victory.

The bastion reached all parts of the European continent at the beginning of the XVI century precisely to leave behind the little effectiveness of the old fortifications before the cannon attacks, given the thinness of its high walls .

Let's see below some of the most popular types of bastion:

* A pincer : it is also known simply as gripped bastion , and which has a recess formed by the flanked angle;

* Cut : this kind of bastion has one or two angles starters instead of flanked;

* of orejones : the orejón, name that receives one of its faces, covers its convex angles and withdraws towards the center with its extremity;

* Highlighted : it is a fortress built in the style of a bastion;

* Double : construction takes place in combination with more bastions, for which it is necessary to have enough space ;

* irregular : it is characterized by not being symmetrical;

* full : has an embankment inside;

* medium : has a flank and a face;

* cake : this type of bastion is also known as flat , and its main feature is its half-golas, which form a straight line;

* real : its construction takes place at the extremities of large polygons, those that measure between 150 and 200 meters. In his interior troops can be very numerous and his solidity grants him a great resistance to the most violent attacks ;

* regular : presents an equivalence between their angles and their corresponding lines;

* blunt : it was built at an incoming angle;

* simple : its embankment has in the middle a space destined to the construction of buildings such as the magazines;

* Empty : it is the bastion that has not been completely filled.

It can be said that the bastion is a fortified enclosure whose projection is carried out outside the central sector of the fortress in question. The usual thing is that they are installed in the corners, a location that allows to improve the conditions of the defense .

In general, the bastions have a pentagonal shape (the two sides, the two sides and the gola), a design that makes it possible to cover the walls and other bastions through the crossfire.

In antiquity, the bastions made that, when a troop tried to storm a fortress, they had to place their artillery batteries at a great distance. That's why the attacks were difficult.

The idea of ​​bastion can also be used in a symbolic sense to name the most important precept of a theory or a doctrine. Bastion, in this framework, is that on which a system is built or a certain scaffolding is sustained: "The abolition of private property is the bastion of communism" , "Our political movement has honesty as the main bastion" , " The Uruguayan midfielder is the bastion of the local team . "

Bastion , finally, is the name of a villain created by Marvel Comics that faces the X-Men . This character appeared for the first time in a 1996publication .