He designed and built some military
fortifications on the
Mediterranean coast of the
Iberian Peninsula for
Spain during the second half of the sixteenth century. In 1568, King
Philip II of Spain had given to the noble
Vespasian Gonzaga, mandated to carry out a plan of defense of the Mediterranean coast of Spain. For that, similarly, had already done in the
Kingdom of Sicily in 1547 and 1552 with
Ferramolino and Pietro del Grado, the nobleman was accompanied by an expert, the Antonelli, derived from inspection and the planned construction of the fortifications of port city of
Cartagena, the coast of the
Kingdom of Valencia and the African ports of
Oran and
Mazalquivir. Within this project of fortification of the coast of Spain and
Africa, was built a series of towers along the coast, the coast of the
Kingdom of Murcia and Valencia, and was undertaken the reconstruction of the
Castle of Santa Barbara overlooking
Alicante (Spain) in 1562, the construction of the Benidorm Palace and the Tower of Santa Faz in Alicante in 1575 and the reservoir of
Tibi (1580). In addition, the walls were built to protect
Peñíscola. From 1580 he devoted himself to the study of the navigability of the
river Tagus from
Lisbon to
Toledo, a project that never became a reality (there is a satirical novel of
Ricardo Sanchez Candelas, who took over the project entitled: "Navigated only his dreams". In the early 1580s he participated in the designs of fortifications planned to be built in the
Strait of Magellan to prevent the entry of non-Spanish ships to the Pacific from the Atlantic. The
Spanish settlement attempt of the strait had however by 1587 turned into failure with only a few colonist surviving starvation and disease. ==References==