Benedetto da Ravenna (c. 1485–1556) was an Italian military engineer known for his work for John III of Portugal.
[2] Ravenna then participated in the expedition to Tunis in 1535, as had Lourenço Pires de Távora, the latter serving under the Infante Luís.
[3][note 1] In 1541, John III of Portugal requested the urgent services of Ravenna,[3] then based at Gibraltar, as chief military engineer to Charles V (Charles I of Spain), who "loaned" the engineer to his cousin.
[4] Between 1541 and 1542 Ravenna collaborated with Miguel de Arruda,[note 2] and the Spanish-Portuguese master builder and architect João de Castilho, and Diogo de Torralva, on the Portuguese fortress at Mazagan, the present-day Moroccan port-city of El Jadida, which was the first Portuguese fortified site with angular bastions.
[5] Arruda later made key alterations to Da Ravenna's initial 1541 design of the Royal Walls at Ceuta, especially to the bastions on the western front.