Sforzinda was an ideal city designed by the Florentine architect Antonio di Pietro Averlino, known as Filarete, in his Trattato di architettura (Treatise on Architecture) of around 1465, and named for his Milanese patron Francesco Sforza. Its plan was an eight-pointed star formed by superimposing two squares within a circular moat, with streets radiating from a central piazza to the gates and corners. The scheme integrated public buildings, markets, churches and services in a rationally ordered whole. It survived as a written and drawn proposal rather than a built city.
It is generally regarded as the first fully designed ideal city of the Renaissance, expressing humanist faith in geometric order. Its radial, star-shaped geometry became a template for later ideal cities and informed the star-fort towns such as Palmanova built for defence.