Wignacourt towers | |
---|---|
Various locations in Malta and Gozo | |
Type | Coastal watchtowers |
Site information | |
Condition | 4 survived 2 destroyed |
Site history | |
Built | 1610–1620 |
Built by | Order of Saint John |
In use | 1610–2002 |
Materials | Limestone |
Battles/wars | Raid of Żejtun (1614) Capture of Malta (1798) Siege of Malta (1798–1800) |
The Wignacourt towers (Maltese : Torrijiet ta' Wignacourt) are a series of large coastal watchtowers built in Malta by the Order of Saint John between 1610 and 1620. A total of six towers of this type were constructed, four of which survive.
In 1418, the Maltese people made a petition to build a tower guarding the Gozo Channel, but nothing materialised. In the early 15th century, the local Mahras maintained several watch posts around the islands' coastline, and some of the posts possibly had a coastal watchtower. Despite this, there was a shortage of men and coastal defence was not very effective, with the islands remaining open to attacks by Moors or Barbary corsairs.
The Maltese islands fell under the control of the Order of Saint John in 1530. The Order initially established its base in Birgu, and later moved to Valletta. Both cities are located in the Grand Harbour, the main natural harbour in Malta. By the end of the 16th century, the harbour area was extensively fortified, but nothing had been done to improve the coastal defences. [1]
In 1598, a fleet of 40 Ottoman ships was sighted off Capo Passaro in Sicily. This led to efforts to build new coastal defences. In 1599, Grand Master Martin Garzez invited the military engineer Giovanni Rinaldini to examine the defences and suggest improvements. Garzez died in 1601 before any new defences were built, but he left a sum of 12,000 scudi in his will for building a new coastal watchtower. In 1605, construction of Garzes Tower began in Mġarr, Gozo. The tower was completed sometime after 1607. [2]
Garzez's successor, Alof de Wignacourt, set out to build a series of towers around the coastline. The first of these, called Wignacourt Tower after the Grand Master, was proposed in 1609 and the first stone was laid on 10 February 1610. Five other towers were built over a ten-year period until 1620. The construction of five of the six towers was funded personally by Wignacourt, amounting to a total cost of 55,519 scudi. This amounted to one eighth of the Grand Master's total benefactions to the Order. The only tower which was not financed by Wignacourt was Marsalforn Tower on Gozo, which was financed directly by the Order. It was considerably smaller than the other towers, and did not have any bastions. [3]
Saint Lucian Tower first saw action in the raid of Żejtun of 1614, when it prevented an Ottoman force from landing in Marsaxlokk. In around 1715, as part of a programme to improve Malta's coastal defences, artillery batteries were built around three of the towers. Saint Lucian Tower was strengthened and renamed Fort Rohan in the 1790s, and saw use during the French capture of Malta and subsequent Maltese rebellion. The tower was turned into a polygonal fort by the British in the 1870s, and it was renamed Fort San Lucian.
The Wignacourt towers remained in use for coastal defence until the early years of British rule. They were all decommissioned during the course of the 19th century, and were later used for a number of purposes, including as police stations, post offices, isolation hospitals and stables. In the late 1880s, Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower was demolished. Some of the towers were also used in World War I or World War II.
All four surviving towers have been restored since the 1970s. Saint Mary's Tower on Comino was used by the Armed Forces of Malta as a lookout post until 2002. [4]
Name | Image | Location | Built | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wignacourt Tower | St. Paul's Bay | 1609 | Intact (without original staircase) [5] | |
Saint Lucian Tower | Marsaxlokk | 1610–1611 | Intact (without original staircase) | |
Saint Thomas Tower | Marsaskala | 1614 | Intact | |
Marsalforn Tower | Xagħra | c.1614–1616 | Collapsed 1716, some ruins remain | |
Saint Mary's Tower | Comino | 1618 | Intact (without musketry gallery) [6] | |
Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower | Xgħajra | 1620 | Demolished c.1888 | |
Unlike the later Lascaris and De Redin towers, the Wignacourt towers were more than simply watchtowers. They formed significant strongpoints intended to protect vulnerable sections of the coast from attack. Coastal batteries were later added to three of the towers and they were also sometimes regarded as forts.
A distinctive feature typical of the Wignacourt towers is the corner bastioned turrets. The feature can be found in all four surviving towers, and although the exact design of the demolished Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower is not known, it possibly also had bastions. On the other hand, Marsalforn Tower did not have any bastions and its design differed significantly from the other towers.
The concept of bastioned towers was developed in Spain in the late 16th century. One of the earliest known bastioned towers is the Torre de San Giovanni in the Ebro Delta, which was built in 1576 and today lies in ruins. Other bastioned towers were built in Sicily, Majorca and Cuba, such as Torreón de la Chorrera.
Thirty years after the construction of the last Wignacourt tower, another bastioned tower was built in Malta – Saint Agatha's Tower in Mellieħa. This was built during the reign of Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, and it is therefore considered to be one of the Lascaris towers. [7]
In the late 18th century, Selmun Palace was built in Selmun, limits of Mellieħa. The palace was not intended for military purposes, but its design was influenced by the Wignacourt towers. It has bastion-like turrets and fake embrasures, which were built for aesthetic purposes. They also served as a deterrent for corsairs looking for a potential landing spot, since the structure looked like a military outpost especially when viewed from the sea. [8]
Today, Wignacourt towers are considered to be among the best examples of surviving bastioned towers around the world. [2]
Every tower originally had an escutcheon with the coat of arms of Wignacourt. The escutcheon of the first Wignacourt Tower is missing, while that of St Lucian Tower was replaced by the coat of arms of de Rohan in the 1790s. The escutcheons of St Thomas and St Mary's Towers still exist, although the one at the façade of St Thomas Tower has been defaced.
The towers also had musketry loopholes, parapets and machicolations. Each tower was accessed by a drawbridge. The one at St Thomas Tower is still partially intact and it is the only original one to have survived in Malta. [2]
Mellieħa is a large village in the Northern Region of Malta. It has a population of 10,087 as of March 2014. Mellieħa is also a tourist resort, popular for its sandy beaches, natural environment, and Popeye Village nearby.
Fort San Lucian, also known as Saint Lucian Tower or Fort Rohan, is a large bastioned watchtower and polygonal fort in Marsaxlokk, Malta. The original tower was built by the Order of Saint John between 1610 and 1611, being the second of six Wignacourt towers.
A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, although some are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a hastily constructed temporary fortification. The word means "a place of retreat". Redoubts were a component of the military strategies of most European empires during the colonial era, especially in the outer works of Vauban-style fortresses made popular during the 17th century, although the concept of redoubts has existed since medieval times. A redoubt differs from a redan in that the redan is open in the rear, whereas the redoubt was considered an enclosed work.
Wignacourt Tower, also known as Saint Paul's Bay Tower, is a bastioned watchtower in St. Paul's Bay, Malta. It was the first of six Wignacourt towers to be built, and the first stone was laid on 10 February 1610. It replaced the role of Ta' Tabibu farmhouse which was previously known as Dejma Tower. An artillery battery was added a century later in 1715. Today the tower is a museum of fortifications around the Maltese Islands.
Saint Agatha's Tower, also known as the Red Tower, Mellieħa Tower or Fort Saint Agatha, is a large bastioned watchtower in Mellieħa, Malta. It was built between 1647 and 1649, as the sixth of the Lascaris towers. The tower's design is completely different from the rest of the Lascaris towers, but it is similar to the earlier Wignacourt towers. St. Agatha's Tower was the last large-bastioned tower to be built in Malta.
This page list topics related to Malta.
The De Redin Towers are a series of small coastal watchtowers built in Malta by the Order of Saint John between 1658 and 1659. Thirteen towers were built around the coast of mainland Malta to act as watchtowers. Eight of the towers still survive.
The Lascaris Towers are a series of mostly small coastal watchtowers built in Malta by the Order of Saint John between 1637 and 1652. The first seven towers were built around the coast of mainland Malta in 1637 and 1638. Between 1647 and 1652, a large tower was also built on mainland Malta, and two smaller ones were built on Gozo.
Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower, also known as Delle Grazie Tower, Madonna delle Gratie Tower or Blata Bajda Tower, was a watchtower in what is now Xgħajra, Malta. It was constructed in 1620, and was the last of six Wignacourt towers to be built. The tower was demolished in the late 19th century by the British military.
Marsalforn Tower refers to two towers that stood near Marsalforn, in the limits of Xagħra, Gozo, Malta. The first one was built in 1616, as the fourth of six Wignacourt towers, and collapsed around 1715. The second was a Tour-reduit, which was built in 1720 and demolished in 1915.
Din l-Art Ħelwa is a non-governmental and non-profit, voluntary organisation founded in 1965 by Maltese Judge Maurice Caruana Curran to safeguard Malta's cultural heritage and natural environment. Since its foundation, Din l-Art Ħelwa has restored numerous cultural sites of historic and environmental importance and currently has the guardianship of a number of them. Many of the sites are open to visitors and for events, thanks to an army of dedicated volunteers. The organisation promotes the preservation and protection of historic buildings and monuments, the character of Malta's towns and villages, and places of natural beauty. It is very active in campaigning against proposed construction which infringes planning laws or policies, and regularly objects to planning applications, taking legal action to halt development in some cases. The NGO stimulates the enforcement of existing laws and the enactment of new ones for the protection of Malta's natural and built heritage.
Saint Mary's Tower, also known as the Comino Tower, is a large bastioned watchtower on the island of Comino in Malta. It was built in 1618, the fifth of six Wignacourt towers. The tower was used by the Armed Forces of Malta until 2002, and it is now in the hands of Din l-Art Ħelwa.
Xlendi Tower is a small watchtower near Xlendi Bay, within the limits of Munxar on the island of Gozo in Malta. The tower is one of the Lascaris towers and dates to 1650; it is currently undergoing restoration.
The Raid on Żejtun, also known as The Last Attack, was the last major attack made by the Ottoman Empire against the island of Malta, which was then ruled by the Order of St. John. The attack took place in July 1614, when raiders pillaged the town of Żejtun and the surrounding area before being beaten back to their ships by the Order's cavalry and by the inhabitants of the south-eastern towns and villages.
Vittorio Cassar, born Gio Vittorio Cassar, was a Maltese architect and military engineer. The son of the renowned architect Girolamo Cassar, he was admitted as a knight within the Order of St. John in 1587. He became the Order's resident engineer in the early 17th century, and he directed the upgrading of the Cittadella of Gozo between 1600 and 1603.
Garzes Tower, also known as Saint Martin's Tower, was a watchtower built in Mġarr, Gozo by the Order of Saint John in 1605. It was named after Martin Garzez, the Grand Master who financed its construction, even though it was eventually built after his death during the Magistry of Alof de Wignacourt. The tower was demolished in the 19th century; some remains were reused for the building of a bridge, and the site was developed with a hotel.
Sopu Tower, also known as Isopu Tower, San Blas Tower or Torre Nuova, is a small watchtower situated on the cliff between San Blas and Daħlet Qorrot in Nadur, Gozo, Malta.
Dwejra Tower is a small watchtower in Dwejra Bay, San Lawrenz, which is on the island of Gozo in Malta. It was completed in 1652, and is part of the Lascaris towers. It is in good condition and is open to the public.
The fortifications of Malta consist of a number of walled cities, citadels, forts, towers, batteries, redoubts, entrenchments and pillboxes. The fortifications were built over hundreds of years, from around 1450 BC to the mid-20th century, and they are a result of the Maltese islands' strategic position and natural harbours, which have made them very desirable for various powers.
Selmun Palace, also known as Selmun Tower, is a villa on the Selmun Peninsula in Mellieħa, Malta. It was built in the 18th century by the Monte della Redenzione degli Schiavi, funded by the Monte di Pietà. The palace was located on the grounds of a hotel until it closed in 2011.