"CNN) — They're scattered all over Europe but their perfect geometrical beauty can only be fully admired when seen from above."
"Like snowflakes viewed through a magnifying glass, there's a dazzling fractal-like quality to the neat, intricate way they've been laid out -- just that we're not talking here about natural wonders.
An entirely new, rational way to design fortified settlements, the "star cities" of the 16th and 17th centuries were a jewel of the early modern era and engineered by some of the most brilliant minds of their time.
The science of building star-shaped bastion forts came into being in Italy during the Renaissance, when gunpowder and cannon rendered old medieval walls obsolete.
High, vertical walls gave way to low-lying ramparts, which offered less of a target, while wide moats, sloping earthworks and complex networks of protruding bastions would eliminate any blind spots and prevent besieging armies from coming anywhere near the ramparts."
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