Gulf of Hammamet

The Gulf of Hammamet opened before a fortified town on Tunisia's Mediterranean coast. During the fifteenth century the town's defences were substantially enlarged. The fortress served as a strongpoint and as the governor's residence, joining the protection of the shore to the exercise of local authority. Its walls gave the settlement a defended presence beside the waters south of Cape Bon.

The coast also lay within reach of naval expeditions from Malta. In 1602 the Order of St John carried out a campaign against Hammamet under Alof de Wignacourt. The attack brought the town into a wider Mediterranean contest in which fleets could cross between European bases and North African shores. The gulf's early modern setting therefore included vulnerable coastal approaches as well as fortified landings: the town's defensive buildings belonged to a maritime landscape repeatedly exposed to warfare from the sea.