page_title: Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino
section_title: Martello tower
hierarchical_section_title: Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino / Martello tower
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Située dans le Golfe de St Florent
context_page_description: Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino, known as El Fratin or Il Fratino, was a military engineer who served the Spanish Emperor Charles V, and then his son Philip II of Spain.
  He is known for having designed the first Martello tower as well as many other fortifications.
context_section_description: During the Italian War of 1551–1559, Giovan Fratino initially served in the French army. After being captured by the Spanish in 1558, he joined the army of Philip II.  Giovan and his brother Giorgio were assigned to the Governor of Milan, tasked with strengthening the old Sforza Castle.
  In 1563 his services were lent to the Genoese, allies of Spain, to help with the defenses of Corsica. 
  Fratino arrived in Corsica on 29 January 1563, accompanied by Colonel Giorgio Doria. He spent the rest of the year on the island, improving the Calvi, Ajaccio, Bastia and Bonifacio citadels and establishing new fortifications along the coast.
  On 30 December 1563, after he had left the island, he gave the Genoese a diagram and building instructions for the tower at Mortella Point, which was to help defend the town of San Fiorenzo by protecting the entrance to the gulf.  These have been preserved in the archives of Genoa.
  The tower was built between 1564 and October 1565.
  Typical towers at that time were square and had a defending machicolation.
  Fratino designed a 3-story cylindrical tower with a rooftop gun platform, and with no machicolation,
  an innovative design that was only accepted after some resistance. 
  The Torra di Mortella in what is now the Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse was the first of what became known as Martello towers. Such towers were typically used to protect a vulnerable shoreline, and were round structures about 10 to 15 metres (33 to 49 ft) high, with very thick, mortar-bound walls.  The fort would hold heavy artillery in the upper level, with accommodations for fifteen or twenty soldiers on the ground floor. The name comes from the location of the tower at Mortella (Myrtle) Point on the island. In 1794 the garrison of the Torre della Mortella resisted two British frigates with over 100 guns between them for two days. The tower had just one 6-pounder gun and two 18-pounders. Although it was eventually captured by a landing force, the performance was so impressive that Britain, and later the United States, built copies of it around the world.
caption: Ruins of the Torra di Mortella at Mortella, Corsica
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