The Argentario area is known for its beaches and is a center of international importance for sailing and pleasure boating, but there are also architectural beauties from the Renaissance era such as the Forts< /em>.
Fort Stella (Port Ercole)
In the past, it was one of the bulwarks of the defensive system of the Argentario promontory, it looks like an imposing fortification, characterized by the presence of two forts, one external and one internal.
The fortification was built by the Spaniards in the second half of the sixteenth century.
The area in which the fort itself stands is delimited by an external fort; in the past there was a system of ditches externally which made access to the complex even more protected and secure. To overcome the external fort it is necessary to walk along a long ascending ramp which leads to the door which opens on the north-eastern side of the external curtain wall. The access door to the complex is preceded by a bridge which replaced the lost original drawbridge in modern times.
The area enclosed within the external bastioned fort constitutes the base on which the fort proper stands, built on the pre-existing Forte Sant’Ippolito, with very thick and high curtain walls, above which rests the parapet, equipped with a patrol walkway, which delimits the large summit terrace, originally used by the sentinels for sighting functions and to send light signals to the other towers in case of danger. Numerous loopholes open along the curtain walls of the internal fortress, to further protect the heart of the coastal defensive structure. At the eastern vertex of the internal fort, one of the original watchtowers with a bell gable has been preserved, which originally characterized each vertex of the fort proper.
Inside, exhibitions and cultural events are held during the summer. The natural lighting of the internal environments is given by a hexagonal-shaped opening that opens in the center of the summit terrace.
Fort Santa Caterina
The fortification was built in the first half of the eighteenth century by the Spaniards, in the place where a pre-existing lost defensive structure probably stood; it became a place specialized in attacks against any enemy boats that approached this stretch of coast of the State of the Garrisons.
The Santa Caterina fort develops on an irregular pentagonal plan, with powerful and thick sloping curtain walls, sometimes covered in stone and sometimes in whitewashed plaster.
The curtain walls have other openings (slits and windows), where once the cannons were located. At each of the two corners facing the sea, there is a semicircular section guard post, without cover, resting on a protruding shelf in the shape of an inverted semi-cone.
Access to the building takes place through an arched door, which opens near the ravelin, above which there is a rectangular window; in the upper part there is a coat of arms of the State of the Garrisons.
Inside the complex there was originally also a powder magazine, in addition to the rooms used as lodgings for the military garrisons.
Fort Philip
The current fortification was built by the architect Giovanni Camerini shortly after the mid-sixteenth century, in the place where a previous era lookout structure once stood, to implement and improve the defensive system of the State of Presidi.
Between the end of the eighteenth century and the first years of the nineteenth century various restructuring interventions were carried out, by the French during the Napoleonic period and by the Lorraines after the passage of the entire territory into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Precisely in this period it was decided to build the chapel of San Nicola in place of the pre-existing late sixteenth-century one.
After the unification of Italy, the complex was gradually abandoned from its original military functions, to then be transformed into a prison at the end of the 19th century and, during the Second World War, it became a place of refuge for the population during the numerous bombings that hit the area.
In the second half of the last century the complex was sold to private individuals, later restored and brought back to its former glory; the buildings located inside the fortress, which in the past were used for military purposes, have been transformed into residential buildings. Before the final renovations were carried out, the complex also belonged to the Corsini princes of Florence.
Forte Filippo looks like an imposing fortified complex that develops on a quadrangular plan, with a fort that delimits the entire defensive structure consisting of a double curtain wall with a massive cordoned shoe base, which in turn encloses a wide and deep moat that divides the external fort from the internal one.
The double walls delimit at each corner a double bastion of triangular shape, external and internal, as well as a fifth minor single bastion which develops on a pentagonal plan protruding from the external curtain wall along the northern side of the complex. In some sections, the patrol walkway along the wall parapets of the fort has been preserved. The architectural peculiarity that distinguishes the fort as a whole is the asymmetry of the corner bastions, which along the external curtain walls preserve the niches where the weapons of attack and active defense were placed. From the northern bastion, a curtain wall detaches itself to protect the connection path between the fortification and the nearby Mulinaccio tower, while to the east there were surface connections with the Santa Caterina fort.
Access to the fortification takes place from the eastern side of the complex, where a round-arched entrance door opens at the ravelin leading onto the characteristic drawbridge which leads to the second door which opens along the internal stone-clad curtain wall: this the last door has a lowered arch covered in travertine, above which is placed a large coat of arms of Spain.
From the large internal courtyard it is possible to reach the buildings which in the past were used for military purposes. They housed a powder magazine, a first aid garrison, the sentinels’ quarters and storage warehouses; among them the presence of the single room building of the eighteenth-century chapel of San Nicola still stands out. Various buildings are used as homes following the restorations carried out in the second half of the last century.
In some internal areas a private museum has been set up which can be visited by appointment. Near the fort there is the Torre del Mulinaccio, which was transformed into a windmill. Since then, sighting functions took place within the open area enclosed by the curtain wall.
The turriform structure, in the form of ruins. The transformation of the original coastal defensive structure into a mill, however, already at the time involved a modification of the original architectural elements that characterized it.
Bastion of Santa Barbara
A coastal fortification, it is an integral part of both the defensive system of the Argentario promontory and that of the village, being in fact an integral part of the walls of Porto Ercole.
The functions they were used for were those of sighting, defense and offense, being in a dominant position with respect to the Old Port of Porto Ercole, which was the infrastructure it was supposed to protect.
The architectural elements of the bastion remained intact until 1846, the year in which the fortification suffered serious damage due to a slight landslide.
The bastion is characterized by wall structures covered in stone, which in the upper part of the summit delimit the terrace, which develops just below the level of the main square of the village, at the opposite end of which the palazzo of the rulers.