Fortress Cuba

Cuba has always been a magical place filled with beautiful people and valuable resources (not to mention its prime location in the Caribbean between North, Central, and South America). While Cuba has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years, it wasn't "discovered" by Europeans until the year 1492 (by everyone's favorite controversial explorer, Christopher Columbus).

Cuba remained a jewel in the Spanish Empire's crown for centuries until it was relinquished to the United States in 1898. To protect the Spanish from locals (and more importantly, pirates) a series of forts were constructed, primarily in Havana and Santiago. Eventually, these forts were refitted and expanded as Cuba's military importance grew and as the island was dragged into the wars of Europe - such as Britain's conquest of Cuba in 1762 during the Seven Year's War (it was quickly returned to Spain in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris that ended the war) and conflicts with France.

The forts of Havana, Cuba.

Since most of the current forts were constructed in the late 1500s to mid-1700s, many share the 'star fort' or 'bastion fort' innovation that arose in Europe in the mid-1400s which enabled forts to withstand cannon barrages much more effectively than earlier styles of fortification.

With a few exceptions, Cuba's forts are centered around Havana. One of the great losses of Cuba's history, are the 5 km of walls that once surrounded the old city of Havana. They were constructed between 1674 and 1740, contained 11 gates, and rose to 10 meters in height, but the walls were demolished starting in 1863. Only a few very small segments remain. However, like many cities that no longer retain their walls, the path of the walls can be readily identified, as roads are often constructed along their former path.

Comparison of the old city of Havana. (Left) a 1853 map showing the city walls, (Right) a current satellite image showing where the walls once stood.

The largest fort in Cuba is the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña which sits atop a high bluff on the eastern entrance to Havana Harbor. It is roughly 2,300 feet across.

Find out more about #FortressCuba and its 14 forts by downloading the Google Earth File here, or you can explore the map below.



As always, if there's an error or a missing place (that you have the exact location of), please let me know. Projects like Fortress Earth only work when people share their knowledge.

--Jacob Bogle, 10/18/17
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Fortress Georgia

Gori Fortress

Georgia is a small country in the Caucasus Mountains that seems squeezed between Turkey and Russia. Similar small countries are awash in massive castles and forts, like Belgium and the Netherlands, which have long been the main invasion route in western Europe between the major powers.

Turkey (specifically the former Ottoman Empire) and Russia have certainly been major powers in their own right over the centuries. But Georgia isn't covered in beautiful star forts or rows of castles that are practically within sight of one another (such as the castles in the Vosges Mountains in France). However, that isn't to say Georgia is devoid of castles either.

Georgia has a pretty complex and long history, and its location is a key factor to this.

Larger countries have long wanted to control Georgia as it sits at a key crossing point between Europe, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia. After centuries of conflict between the Roman Empire and Persia over controlling the Kingdom of Iberia, a series of descendant kingdoms grew into the Kingdom of Georgia by the year 1008.

The Kingdom reached its golden age in the 11th and 13th centuries, but it was rarely able to really live in peace as its Christian neighbor, the Byzantine Empire, fell to conquest, and as the various Persian states fought to ward off Ottoman eastward expansion. In 1490 the Kingdom split into several territories and each would eventually be pulled into either Ottoman or Russian spheres of influence. 

Later in history, the continual wars between the Ottomans, Imperial Russia, and the Persians over scraps of former Georgian territory resulted in Georgia eventually being annexed into the Russian Empire. Georgia only fully regain its independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

With all of this history, you could be forgiven for asking, "so why aren't there massive defenses everywhere?"

Georgia's location also had something to with its defense. The country is sandwiched between the Greater Caucasus Mountains to the north and the Lesser Caucasus and Pontic Mountains to the south. Georgia only has a limited amount of gentle land and low mountain passes for large armies to traverse. This means that smaller castles and fortresses on step mountain sides can do the job of larger ones out in the open.

To be fair, Georgia does have a few rather large sites, like Gori Fortress pictured at the start of this article. But most are smaller affairs.

I was able to locate 95 castles and forts in Georgia. Based on my research, this is at least 80% of all the castles in the country. Despite spending hours combing through various sources, the exact location of several simply couldn't be ascertained and a few others were in such bad shape and overgrown that no clear identification could be made. Those 95 sites give a ratio of 1 castle per 283 square miles or 1 per 39,000 people.

While many may be relatively small, I defy any medieval army to take the heights of Vere Castle (below) without being incredibly determined and very well equipped. Even in its dilapidated state, you can see the castle was easily defensible, perched high atop its mountain home. 

Here's a Google map with all of the castles mapped out.

To download the Google Earth file directly, simply click this link.

As always, if there's an error or a missing place (that you have the exact location of), please let me know. Projects like Fortress Earth only work when people share their knowledge.

--Jacob Bogle, 9/25/2017
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Fortress Turkey

Rumelian Castle. Image source: Commons.

Turkey's location at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East means it has some of the richest and most diverse history anywhere in the world. Constantly fought over, Turkey can also boast hundreds of forts and castles going back thousands of years. Since the main focus of #FortressEarth is to find sites constructed no earlier than 1000 AD (or at least still in use by) this means Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman, and modern-era fortifications, as well as sites constructed by Russians and others during various wars. I have been able to find 283 fortified sites and related structures. Given Turkey's complex history and equally complex territory, there are undoubtedly sites I have missed, but I am confident that this map has a majority of them.

The three main sources of information I used to locate these sites were Wikipedia, Wikimapia, and Castles.nl. Roughly 60% were found by me methodically scanning Google Earth.

If you zoom in a little on the map below, some of the interesting things you can discern are the main invasion routes into Anatolia. Groups of fortifications around Istanbul (Constantinople), several defending the Dardanelles to the south, and if you look near the border with Bulgaria, you can find multiple forts defending Edirne. Edirne (Adrianople) served as the Ottoman capital for 90 years before they were finally able to capture Constantinople in 1453. Adrianople has been called the most contested piece of land on earth - having been under siege no fewer than 17 times since 313 AD.

Across the peninsula, in the region near the border with Georgia, you can find the main invasion routes into the region from Russia and Armenia. This area was the site of many large battles. To the south, you see the way defended from invasions coming north from Syria. Finally, you can see the string of castles all along the southern coast which served to defend Anatolia from many foes through the ages.

Based on this map, the interior is unusually empty of castles. I suppose this is due to the fact that while the borders of Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire were constantly under threat, once one side or another conquered the interior, they tended to hold it - making the need for huge numbers of castles generally unnecessary. The ones that do exist protected key cities, regional capitals, and a few important trade routes.

If you would like to directly download the Google Earth file to explore more easily (and have access some additional content in some cases), simply click here.

If you know of any places I missed, have any corrections, or other comments, you can either contact me via the links below or simply comment on this article.

--Jacob Bogle, 7/10/17

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#FortressEarth Update No. 1

I've been fairly busy since my introductory article back in February on the #FortressEarth Mapping Project.

Expansive projects like this one can only really work and be completed when people share their knowledge. I received an email from a photographer with a file containing around 140 star forts that I hadn't mapped as part of Version 1 of "Star Forts Around the World". That led me to complied Version 2 which contains 161 additional star forts. You can check that out here.

Trying to map every castle and fort is a very daunting task and it takes a lot of work. Thankfully, since it's literally impossible for me to view every square kilometer of the globe in search of sites, there are lots of resources out there. While taking advantage of one such resource, Wikimapia, (to which I am a contributor) I was able to review Burma, Pakistan, and the US - countries I had "completed". I was able to add another 70 forts to those files. I've also been able to complete mapping the countries of Afghanistan, Suriname, Syria, Thailand, and Vietnam bringing the total to 69 completed countries and autonomous territories.

Completed countries. Click for larger view.

India is one of the most fort-dense countries in the world, so it's a big deal whenever I can complete mapping one of the Indian states. Currently I have completed 5 of the 36 states and territories. While not complete, I have mapped nearly 300 Rajasthan forts. Overall, I've mapped some 700 in India.
Additionally, I have been spending a lot of time mapping sites in China. The Great Wall and all its forts has been difficult, but I am making progress. I've mapped over 280 forts and walled cities in China, plus countless miles of the Wall itself. I also came across two categories of fortification that I didn't know existed until recently.

A Hakka Village's tulou. 

In Hong Kong, there are dozens of walled villages and in mainland China there are round fortified structures called Tulou. There is an estimated 20,000 of them! Many exist in close groups so I won't be forced to mark every single one individually, but it will still take time. Regardless, I am thankful for these discoveries, otherwise the project wouldn't be truly complete.

On the whole, I have now mapped over 14,400 sites around the world and since I have finished my #AccessDPRK project (with 53,722 places), I can spend more time working on this.

For more information and the ability to download the files of selected countries, visit my main website's page on the project.

If you have a list of forts, walled cities, or castles - particularly a list focused on a country, state/province, or era, please send it to me! I have found thousands of places, and thanks to the work of others I have been able to include thousands more. A complete map of every fortified site on earth won't happen without the help of others.

--Jacob Bogle, 3/14/17
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#FortressEarth Introduction

I love forts and castles, like, a lot. And I also love maps. So why not make a map of every fort and castle in the world? I set out to do just that several years ago using Google Earth. Such a unique and expansive compilation of these sites doesn't exist anywhere and I am very happy to be putting it together.

My main mapping focus for the past four years has actually been creating the most comprehensive map of North Korea available to the public (you can find out more at MyNorthKorea.Blogspot.com). As that project nears its completion, I have been able to ramp up work on #FortressEarth.

The key objective is to map every extant (including visible ruins) classical fort and castle (that served a legitimate defensive purpose) built between 1000 AD and 1945, or was at least in use by 1000 if it was constructed earlier. There are no firm figures on the total number of such places, but globally it could be as high as 100,000 sites (excluding the huge number of fortifications and bunkers built during World Wars I and II). So I realize this is going to take me longer to finish than the 4 years it has taken to map North Korea (a map with some 50,000 places). But, I have definitely made progress.

Below is a map of every country I have completed. Click on the picture for a larger view.

I have finished finding forts in 64 countries and territories. Those 64 countries hold 2,000 sites. I am also very close to being done with Australia, Japan, Portugal, and South Africa. So far, in total, I have mapped nearly 14,000 fortifications. Every country in Europe, and most in Asia and the Americas have at least one fort or castle that fit within my criteria. Within the countries marked "completed", I have found every site I could with a confidence level of 95%. That means it's possible there could be places I missed, but there wouldn't be a large number of them compared to the overall national total.

Of the countries I have completed, the United States actually has the most sites: 433. I was rather shocked when I realized just how many old forts are in the US. One area that may be lacking is the mapping of fortifications built during the Civil War. Because most were hastily prepared earthworks, many have eroded or been destroyed by modern construction. And since this project is about sites that still have visible remains (if they're not fully intact), a good number of Civil War sites may not be included. Of course, as I find the occasional new site, they will be added to the file.

Of the country maps that are not finished, Italy has the most castles, forts, and fortified cities: 3,270 and counting. In terms of the shear number of sites, Italy, France, Germany, and the UK have the largest numbers by far. Outside of Europe, the only other countries that come close are the United States, India, and China (largely thanks to the Great Wall and its many forts).

In order to accomplish this project, I have to use a large number of resources, such as Wikipedia lists (including those in other languages), specialty sites like StarForts.com and the Guide to Japanese Castles, make use of the work Google Earth Community users have done, like Castles of Hungary and English Castle Collection, as well as many other sources such as government surveys. And while all of these resources make my job much easier, they come with errors and are almost never complete by themselves. This means that I spend a lot of time literally zooming around on Google Earth, looking over mile after mile and city after city.

Star Fort Goryōkaku in Japan.

I have also been working on a related side project - mapping star forts. The map (and other info) can be found on my website www.JacobBogle.com/fortress-earth.html. I've been able to find 1,257 of them to-date, which is a list with at least 80% of all star forts in existence.

Once I have finished and published my North Korea map, my focus will be on #FortressEarth. I don't have a clue when it'll be complete - it may never fully be - but it certainly will be fun. If you'd like to help or notice an error/omission in the country files already available (at JacobBogle.com) please feel free to contact me. And if you'd like to engage on Twitter, just use the hashtag #FortressEarth.

--Jacob Bogle, 2/2/2017
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A World Filled With Stars

Starting around the 15th century, the planet began to fill up with stars. Prior to this period, classical fortifications were basically like your average castle or walled city. They relied on defenses that kept men away from the walls while providing height to allow defenders to fire a rain of arrows down at the unlucky attackers. This worked for thousands of years. Archaeologists have discovered that the city of Jericho had a wall surrounding it as early as 10,000 years ago.

Maiden Castle. A large hill fort in Dorset, England.

There were all kinds of defensive structures, from wooden palisades, to the hill forts of ancient Britain, to the enormous Burghausen Castle which extends its stone walls over a kilometer! And these fortresses did their job for most of human history. They worked until the advent of cannons. The walls of these forts and castles tended to be too thin to handle the impact of the new artillery, and their often round shape was more prone to collapse.

To deal with the problem, military engineers began to introduce thick triangular walls and angular ditches with steep slopes to make it more difficult for projectiles to hit their target, and when they did hit, to provide better greater strength for the structure. The changes also eliminated "dead zones", areas where attackers were relatively safe from counter fire. These forts became ever more complex as time went on. To quote the Oxford History of Modern War, "Fortresses... acquired ravelins and redoubts, bonnettes and lunettes, tenailles and tenaillons, counterguards and crownworks and hornworks and curvettes and fausse brayes and scarps and cordons and banquettes and counterscarps..."

Star Forts, as they came to be known, eventually developed into the "polygonal forts" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Fort Bruyeres near Laon, France.

Fort Bruyeres. Image Source Here

As part of my #FortressEarth project, which seeks to map every fort and castle built between the years 1000 and 1945 that are still visible via satellite, I decided to do a secondary project focused solely on star forts. I found 1,238 such places. These include traditional star forts as well as some of the transitional and polygonal forts that had at least one "triangle" portion or were chevron-shaped. This excludes forts like Bruyeres but includes others like Fort Purbrook in the UK. It also includes "star cities" like Copenhagen and Lucca, Italy. You can download the Google Earth file here.

A classic "star city" - Lucca, Italy (Image: Google Earth)
Click for Larger Image.

Star forts are predominantly found along the coasts and border regions of countries, as well as capital cities. France is a great example of this, whose outline can be easily determined by where French star forts are.

France, apart from having well defended borders, also has a tight ring of 16 star forts (and many other kinds of fortifications) that protected Paris. The Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) have a disproportionate number of star forts, which attest to their own active military history, but also to the fact that they have traditionally been a favored invasion corridor for France and Germany.

I was able to find star forts on every inhabited continent except Australia. Europe has 930, the Americas have 180, Asia has 77, and Africa has 51. It may come as a surprise to some, but the small African country of Ghana has a whoping 14 forts. Unfortunately, these weren't constructed to defend the nation. They were built by the Portuguese to protect the slave trade. You can learn more about "The Slave Fortress of Ghana" here.

Some other interesting bits of information about these beautiful forts:

The northern most star fort in the world (and possibly the most northern fort of any kind) is Norway's Vardøhus Fortress, which is located at 70° 22′ 20″ N, 31° 5′ 41″ E. It is 263 miles above the Arctic Circle!

The southern most is Fort Corral in Chile, at 39°53'20"S 73°25'33" W. It is art of the Valdivian Fort System which the Spanish constructed to protect Corral Bay.

Star forts marked a transitional era in warfare. They arose because of powerful artillery and new tactics, but then, around the 1860s, started to become obsolete - requiring further improvements and the creation of polygonal forts. This last phase of static fortification then finally died out as a powerful means of defense when World War II changed everything. Ballistic missiles weighing thousands of pounds and stealth jets that can reach anywhere in the world, have made traditional above-ground fortifications all but useless. Yet the star forts that remain (as many have been demolished) still stand as testament and guard to human ingenuity and to the history that gave rise to our modern world.

I hope you will find the Google Earth file interesting. And despite the 1,238 forts included, there could still be a few I missed - so keep an eye out! Again, you can download it here.

--Jacob Bogle, 12/8/16
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Fortress Haiti

This is part of the #FortressEarth mapping project by Jacob Bogle. For more information, please visit www.JacobBogle.com/fortress-earth.html

Haiti was discovered by Europeans in 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed there and established the settlement of La Navidad (the first European settlement in the Americas during the Age of Discovery). While the settlement was destroyed by native peoples a year later, Spain was not deterred. The town of Puerto Real was created in 1502 which is near modern-day Fort-Liberté. That area saw a succession of forts culminating with the current Fort Liberté, constructed in 1731. Given Haiti's key location in the Caribbean, it was fought over by the Spanish, French, and English. This, of course, gave rise to many fortifications.

Over all, Haiti has 34 fortified sites that still exist and can be seen via satellite.

Click for larger view.

Most of the forts are in the traditional "star fort" style which was popular from the 15th through 18th centuries, which also coincides with Haiti's colonial history.

Haiti's most impressive fortification is called Citadelle Laferrière.

Click for larger view.

The fort was built in 1820 by Henri Christophe, who was the ruler of the short-lived Kingdom of Haiti. It is one of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Haiti, the other two are also connected to Henri and are within the area of the fort.

Of the smaller forts throughout Haiti, Fort Jacques (which looks out over Port-au-Prince), is quintessential.

It was built by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a predecessor of Henri Christophe, to defend Haiti during the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). It was abandoned soon after his death in 1806. You'll notice the thick walls of the fort. Star forts were developed in response to the advent of cannons and powerful artillery. However, unlike Fort Jacques, the forts around the city of Dessalines tended to be simpler stone structures lacking the heft of thick walls.

Dessalines has a line of six forts, extending from the entrance of the city up to the top of the mountain ridge. The town, named after Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a former slave who became emperor of a liberated Haiti, built a line of five forts to defend the country's new capital from the threat of a potential new French invasion during the early 19th century. The sixth fort (Fort Culbute) was constructed during Haiti's colonial days.

Click for larger view.

Here is a collage of each of the six forts.

Click for larger view.

Due to Haiti's tumultuous political and economic history, most of the country's forts are severely damaged. Apart from the Citadel, Fort Liberté is one of the best preserved forts in Haiti. It's also one of the few forts that aren't a traditional "4-point" star fort.

Click for larger view.

I hope you have enjoyed learning about Haiti's fortifications. If you'd like to download the Google Earth file that contains all 34 sites, you can automatically download the file here. To see other files available, visit https://sites.google.com/site/mymappingprojects/


--Jacob Bogle, 11/25/2016
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