Your tour ends at the New Fortress – or the Fortezza Nuova, as the Venetians called it. It is an excellent example of late Renaissance fortified architecture and its construction began in 1576, although it was not completed until 1645 and has undergone several reconstructions and extensions since then. It is said that the Venetian architect Ferrante Vitelli had to demolish more than 2,000 buildings, most of them houses and churches, to build it. It was called New in order to distinguish it from the Old Fortress and it was part of the city's perimeter fortifications, as walls were built between the two forts that flanked the city. There are stories of underground tunnels connecting it to the Old Fortress, although none have been found.