This symposium on a relatively unexplored aspect of military architecture is the first of several public activities organised by the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta during the academic year 2015-2016. It sets out to explore and discuss the manner in which architects, designers, and military planners of works of military architecture during the Baroque age, sought to bring together architecture, engineering, technology, urbanism, and art in their defensive works in an attempt to endow them with aesthetic appeal. The seminar gathers together eminent scholars and researchers engaged in the study of military architecture and military urbanism, to provide a platform for an exchange of scholarship and research in this fascinating field of study.