Antwerp Citadel

Antwerp Citadel
Antwerp
Detail from the view of Antwerp in Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum (1572)
Typebastion fort
Site information
OwnerHabsburg Netherlands, Dutch Republic, Spanish Netherlands, Austrian Netherlands, United Belgian States, First French Republic, First French Empire, United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Kingdom of Belgium
Site history
Built1567 (1567)
In use1881 (1881)
Fatedemolished
Battles/warsSack of Antwerp (1576), Fall of Antwerp (1585), Siege of Antwerp (1814), Siege of Antwerp (1832)

Antwerp Citadel (Spanish: Castillo de Amberes, Dutch: Kasteel van Antwerpen) was a pentagonal bastion fort built to defend and dominate the city of Antwerp in the early stages of the Dutch Revolt. It has been described as "doubtlesse the most matchlesse piece of modern Fortification in the World"[1] and as "one of the most studied urban installations of the sixteenth century".[2]

  1. ^ John Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. Guy de la Bédoyère (Woodbridge, 2004), p. 40.
  2. ^ Martha Pollak, "Paradigmatic Citadels: Antwerp/Turin", in Cities at War in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 14.