Fort Bourtange, an 11-acre pentagon, was a fort designed to provide a panoramic view of any possible attacks so that the guards would be able to counter them. Hence, it became the leading defense system in the Netherlands. Then, why was it built in the shape of a star or snowflake? Was its shape brought any advantages?
Fort Bourtange was intentionally designed in a star shape. Back in 1580, Prince Willem of Orange built the fort in order to cut the communication and supply lines between Spanish and Germany. The star-shaped design allowed the Netherlands to achieve that goal by building a fort connected by canals and lakes.
Beside its wonderful view, the star-shaped design also serves several advantages for the Netherlands. The star shape enables the guards to place cannons in the perfect angle to protect the fort and counter any attacks from every direction, not leaving out any blind spots. Moreover, the wide ditch and the triangular bastions were especially designed to cover each other, providing the Netherlands a strong defense system. Also, the cannon balls from attackers are repelled by the defenses that were built lower and thicker supported by gently sloping banks of earth glacis across ditches to make the walls almost completely hidden from horizontal artillery fire. As a result, attackers failed to carry out their attacks because their cannon attacks were easily countered by the Netherlands’ cannons placed in every corner of the star-shaped fort.
In sum, the fort was built in a star shape not only for aesthetic purposes only, but also for defense purposes. The shape was proven to give the Netherlands an unbreakable defense system.
