Kilwa, the first European overseas’ fortification built in the East

Abstract

[EN] The Portuguese Fort of Kilwa, 300 km south of Dar-es-Salam, is part of the archaeological landscape of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara (Tanzania), classified as World Heritage in 1981. Together with the Fort they stand out the ruins of the Great Mosque (11th/13th c.) and the Husuni Kubwa Palace (14th c.). Since the 10th century there were flourishing cities at , through which passed much of the trade in the Indian Ocean. As the control came to the Portuguese hands in the 16th century, the region went into decline. Built in 17 days (23 July – 9 August 1505) during the inauguration voyage of Francisco de Almeida, the designated 1st Viceroy of India, the Fort was enshrined in royal rules for the ordering of the colonial direction of the Expansion. Therefore, it can be considered as the first construction of stone (coral) and lime made by Europeans in the eastern side of the world, 500 years ago. The Portuguese occupation only last for 7 years, but its use remain until the mid-nineteenth century, during the operational city. Despite the evolutionary adaptations that lend some contours of Swahili culture to the Fort, its original compositional principles are clearly identified. It is a practical and expeditious example of military architecture, in transition to pyroballistic architecture, designed with a square shape and two round bastions at opposite angles. This model possibly corresponds to the one idealized by Leonardo da Vinci, serving the requirements of the first phase of the Expansion (although it was also adapted in the remodeling of the medieval castles on the border with Spain). The period in which it occurs is called Manueline (King Manuel, 1495-1521), important examples remaining in Africa (Morocco with El Jadida and Aguz, or Ghana with Mina) and in India (Cranganor, Chale), some abandoned or destroyed, and others replaced by more advanced equipment. Kilwa's Fort (located on the seashore served by ships, like all Expansion forts) had internally 2 floors with flat cover in the bastions for artillery.