A plan-relief is a scale model of a landscape and buildings produced for military usage, made to visualize building projects on

fortifications A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

or campaigns surrounding fortified locations.

History

The first examples seem to have been used by the

Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia ...

and more generally by the Italian city-states of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

era. The wood turner Jakob Sandtner (''fl''. 1561-1579) produced plans-relief of many

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n towns, whilst in France

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

's war minister Louvois initiated a collection of plans-relief of French strongholds on a 1:600 scale in 1688. This collection included 144 examples according to Vauban's 1697 inventory of it and was put on a show at the

palais des Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, ...

. Vauban's successors expanded the collection as and when operational necessity demanded, right up until 1870 when they were rendered obsolete by advances in the power of artillery. Some examples from this collection were destroyed and as a whole, it fell into disrepair until being made a Monument historique on 22 July 1927. One hundred examples from this collection survive, of which most are on show in the Museum of Plans-reliefs at Les Invalides and some others in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, still providing a witness to the towns and fortresses of France at this era. Image:Scale Model Of The Tower Of London In The Tower Of London.jpg, Plan-relief of the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...

. Image:Citadelle de Brouage Plan-relief.jpg, Citadel of

Brouage Hiers-Brouage () is a former commune in the Charente-Maritime department, southwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Marennes-Hiers-Brouage. History Brouage was founded in 1555 by Jacques de Pons on the Bay ...

- reproduction of the 17th century plan-relief (exhibited in the Halle aux vivres of the citadel) Image:Grenoble serré - plan-relief 1848.jpg,

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in the alps (1848)

Panstereoramas

After the success of the panorama painting, a spin-off of the plan-relief called the "panstereorama" emerged, this time for popular rather than military use. It was designed to offer an approximation of a balloon ride over a given city. No known models survive.

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Plans-relief
Official site of the Museum of Plans-reliefs
at Les Invalides Scale modeling Fortifications