ABC Wednesday: M is for Milan

This is the second of ABC Wednesday that we use M for Milan.  We visited Milan last October right after our photographic tour to Tuscany.  Grace was in the city for conference and I got some time to walk around.  I am showing here of my trip to Castello Sforzesco.

The original castle was constructed in the 14th century.

During the 15th and 16th century, the castle was built up to a huge star fort with 12 bastions.  The external fortification reached 3 km long and covered 25.9 hectares.

The star fort was developed during the age of gunpowder.  The ring-shaped fortification of the Medieval era can no longer effectively defend the city.  It is particularly developed in the Italian peninsula against French invasion.

The Italian engineers who built these fortifications become in high demand during the next three centuries throughout Europe.

After the unification of Italy in the 19th century, the castle was transformed from military use to the civilian use of Milan City.  A restoration was started.

The castle was severely damaged in 1943 by Allied bombardment.  It has been restored again and now the complex consists of several museum.

 It was a very fine Fall afternoon.  I did not go into any of the museums, rather I just walked around the compound and took pictures.

I was practicing what our photo instructor, Dave Hoptman, try to drill into us during our one week with him in Tuscany.  Basically how the vertical line should be vertical and how horizontal line should be horizontal.

 Here is a remnant of the original fortification.

I saw a professional looking photographer climbed on top of a garbage bin to get a better prospective of the central court yard.  So I did the same thing, with some cleaver post-processing in Photoshop, all my vertical lines now are vertical.

To see more entries of ABC Wednesday click here.