La fortaleza de Porto Longón: el puesto avanzado de Felipe V en Italia (1715-1735)

Abstract

[EN] The Presidios of Tuscany have received less historiographical attention than other fortified sites on the Mediterranean coast. In this context, it is worth mentioning a place unjustly forgotten: Porto Longone (Porto o Puerto Longón in Spanish), today’s Porto Azzurro, on the island of Elba. During the twenty years following the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, Longone was an isolated enclave, Philip V of Spain’s last stronghold in Italy, whose preservation depended on a frail diplomatic and military balance. Despite its fragile situation, the fortress would be of key importance in maintaining the network of contacts with Italy within the revanchist strategy of the Spanish Bourbon and obtaining intelligence from the territories controlled by the imperial forces of Charles VI. The king’s will to turn Longone into a powerful forward base meant that some of the most experienced military engineers of the newly created Spanish Royal Corps of Engineers were stationed there, such as Antonio Montaigut de la Perille, Pedro Coysevaux or Simón Poulet. The project for Longone detailed in the plans of 1722 and 1727 written by Coysevaux was comprehensive and addressed both fortifications like the bastions of Castellón, Toledo or Zúñiga and their advanced works as well as other constructions necessary to ensure the defence of the fortress and decent service conditions for its garrison: barracks, warehouses, powder magazines and water cisterns. The War of the Polish Succession would increase the weight of the stronghold as a base for operations in Italy. From 1735 onwards, Porto Longone would be cut off from the dominions of the kings of Spain, but the previous two decades attest to the effort put into its fortification and improvement, without which its conservation would probably have been more seriously challenged by the rivals of Philip V.