Leonardo's Rivellino is a Renaissance ravelin adjacent to the Visconti Castle in the Swiss city of Locarno. It was designed and built by Leonardo da Vinci during the period of the Milanese wars of the 16th century. This structure is possibly the only military construction by Leonardo da Vinci that has remained intact to this day without having undergone any modifications or transformations whatsoever and is being studied as an example of Renaissance war technology. The rivellino is located northeast of the Visconti Castle, on the Via al Castello. It is mainly visible from the courtyard of the Rivellino art gallery.
Description The structure has a pentagonal plan, with walls up to 4 meters thick, slits and mouths of fire. Inside the Casemate, above the emplacements for the cannons there are the hoods for the aspiration of the fumes resulting from the gunpowder: this element may seem obvious today, but for 1507 it was the vanguard of military technology and represented the key time for the indoor use of gunpowder weapons. On the roof of the building there are the exhaust chimneys of the extractor hoods and further artillery positions. Inside the casemate there are two main naves, which in turn lead to other smaller galleries.
Another element is the inclination of the big walls, capable of deflecting artillery shots, and the use of the corners of the structure as reinforcement in case of attack. These characteristics were in fact an innovation on the engineering and military profile, and will remain unchanged from the theoretical and tactical point of view until the introduction of the airplanes on the battlefields, that is 400 years later.
History The Rivellino Leonardesco was erected in 1507, on the remains of a tower protecting the Visconteo Castle (Locarno) then part of the Duchy of Milan; the latter was destroyed in one of the various attacks by the Confederates against the village, who attempted the siege following the capture of Bellinzona during the period of south expansion.
Background Following the confederate conquest of Bellinzona, the border between Switzerland and the Duchy of Milan (then under French domination following the conquest of 1499) was moved back to the city of Locarno, an important commercial hub as it arose on the shores of Lake Maggiore, part of a dense network of connections thanks to the water channels that allowed the traffic of goods within the duchy. The protection of the ancient medieval port (demolished at the beginning of the 21st century to make room for a roundabout) was therefore peremptory, with a view to strengthening the borders of the Duchy desired by the French occupiers under the reign of Louis XII of France. In this context the experts in the field of military technology of the time were asked, including Leonardo da Vinci, who at that time was staying in Florence, which in the meantime had become a republic.
Commission In 1506, on the advice of Duke Charles de l'Amboise II, then lieutenant in Lombardy, King Louis XII of France asked by a missive to the then Florentine lordship to be able to employ the master Leonardo da Vinci in the important work of strengthening the borders, since the master's name was not unknown to the regent. Da Vinci, in 1502, had also designed of fortifications on behalf of the House of Borgia, in the function of "architect and general engineer". This function will be resumed within the Duchy where he will obtain employment as an ordinary engineer and painter. Also in 1506, he was finally sent to erect a fortification on the border of the Duchy, having in the meantime drawn up an outline project that still exists today, as evidenced by one of his notebooks that survived to our time.
Construction Leonardo da Vinci personally supervised the construction, as evidenced by the travel expenses that have come to the present day, and the type of technology used that was 20 years in advance than similar constructions in the north of Italy. this type of knowledge in the peninsula had in fact been experimentally realized in southern Italy by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, who died 6 years earlier in Siena, compared to the construction mandate. Martini, about the implications of these experimental constructions, drew up a treatise on military architecture from which Leonardo drew various ideas for that kind of new type of constructions, since the Martini had already had to worry about the defense of fortifications by firearms. Vinci took particular care in positioning fire mouths adequately, reinforcing the imposing walls and avoiding possible blind spots.
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