Rules · Cities · Plans · Geometry
Make the central square a regular hexagon from which six streets leave, three to the gates and three to bastions, so that the garrison assembled in the middle can reach any gate or any point of the walls directly.
Palmanova’s piazza is a parade ground as much as a civic square. At its centre stands the base of the standard, the flag of the Republic; round it face the cathedral, the palace of the governor (the provveditore generale) and the guard house. The three streets to the gates and the three to the bastions divide the town into six sectors; the other streets start from the first ring road, and six small squares on the second ring were meant for the markets of each quarter.
Give a fortified town a polygonal wall with an angled bastion at every corner, so that each face of every bastion and every stretch of curtain wall can be swept by fire from its neighbours.
Palmanova: a nine-sided trace with nine bastions and three gates
Give a new city a regular polygonal outline with a bastion at every angle, put the principal piazza at the centre with the chief church and the seat of government on it, and distribute lesser squares for the markets through the quarters.
Line the principal street with the houses of great persons (palaces with regular fronts, cornices and pediments) receding to a monument, as in the stage set for tragedy; leave the humbler houses, shops and taverns of the comic scene to the side streets.
Join the principal churches of the city by straight streets cut across hills and empty land, so that a pilgrim can walk from one to the next directly, and mark the end of every street with an obelisk visible from far away.
Bring water back to the high, empty parts of the city by aqueduct; let it arrive at a monumental fountain and feed public fountains at the crossings of the new streets, so that people will come to live there.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “A hexagonal parade ground at the centre”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/palmanova-piazza. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.