Discussion

Militarized snowflakes: The accidental beauty of Renaissance star forts

NalNezumi: Tangential point but Fort Goryokaku in Hokkaido that is the 5th picture in the article were the last hold out during the meiji restoration by the samurais (shogunate separatist [1]) so it's symbolizes a end of an era.Hokkaido during this era has many interesting stories that's not well known even in Japanese mainstream. There's many weird parallels to US too, during the frontier era because Hokkaido was the last frontier in Japan during the time.The comic Golden Kamui explores this story in an interesting and hilarious way[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ezo

sbuccini: I was struck by the beauty of Forte Spagnolo in L'Aquila[1].The purpose of most star forts appears to be keeping a city safe from armies. Forte Spagnolo was built to keep an army safe from a city! Are there any other forts where this is the case?[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte_Spagnolo,_L%27Aquila