De Redin Towers, Malta

Between 1658 and 1659 Grand Master Fra' Martin de Redin (1657-1660) erected thirteen watch towers around the  coast of Malta.

Madalena Tower

The towers were not intended to prevent an enemy from landing. They were an early warning system. Bonfires were to be lit on their flat roofs as a warning of an invasion and a combination of flags and gunfire were developed to pass on other information to the populace.

Ghallis  Tower

Before the arrival of the Knights, the seas around Malta had been plied by pirates who frequently came ashore to pillage and plunder the countryside. Many of the older men were killed by the pirates who carried off the younger men and women to slavery on the Barbary coast.

Qalet Marku Tower

The de Redin Towers were all built to a similar plan. They were nine meters wide and approximately twelve meters high. Inside were two vaulted rooms, one on top of the other but with no internal access between them. Entry to the upper storey was by a wooden ladder. Although the walls are approximately three meters thick at the base, strong enough to withstand musket fire and an attack by a small raiding party, they would not have been able to withstand a sustained attack.

Madalena Tower

Each tower was guarded by four men who were paid for by the Universities of Notabile and Valletta and two guns provided by the Order. De Redin raised a regular Maltese corps of 4000 highly trained and well armed musketeers. In a letter to the Pope he wrote "The Maltese will defend their wives and children like lions. They are the best soldiers :strong, agile and fit to undergo the hardships of a campaign".

Hamrija Tower

Grand Master Fra' Martin de Redin (1579-1660)

Fort St Lucian, Marsaxlokk

Fort St Lucian was built in 1610 by Grand Master Fra' Alof de Wignacourt. This powerful rectangular fort was intended to defend the great unprotected bay of Marsaxlokk in the south of Malta where the Turks had landed in 1565. The fort was named after the church where Wignacourt was christened.

A legend reports how a female slave from Tunisia, on being converted to Christianity, confessed to a Jesuit priest that St John the Baptist appeared to her, warning her of an imminent threat and advising of the construction of a fort at Marsaxlokk. the grand master was told but was too busy building his aqueduct to take much notice. However the following summer eight Turkish galleys attempted to land in the bay but were prevented by the coastguard convinced the grand master to build the fort at a cost of 11,745 scudi.

Fort St Lucian was completed by 11 June 1611 when a bronze canon was installed. It is a strong square tower built on a promontory with four bastions, one at each corner. The walls are twenty three feet thick at the base surrounding two barreled vaulted chambers with two more on the upper storey from which extend six splayed embrasures in the sixteen foot thick walls.

In 1614 a large Turkish expedition attempted to enter the harbour but was repulsed by a bombardment from the guns of Fort St Lucian. In 1641 the Turks attacked Malta again, putting ashore about 5,000 men in Marsaxlokk bay. However they were contained by the Maltese cavalry and the guns of Fort St Lucian drove the galleys from the beaches.

In 1722 the fort was garrisoned by thirty men and armed with six cannons. A battery was built on the seaward side and equipped with eight cannons. In 1761 French engineers reported that it, 'is very solid, vaulted to perfection and on a platform holds five cannon of 10 pounds and two of six pounds with two little mortars.'

In 1793 Grand Master Rohan had a ditch excavated around the fort to further strengthen its defences, his escutcheon was carved over the entrance and it was  named Fort Rohan in his honour.

St Cecilia Tower, Ghajnsielem

St Cecilia Tower, at the edge of the village of Ghajnsielem is a notable landmark on the road from Mgarr Harbour to the Citadel. Built in 1613 by Fra' Bernado de Macedonia, the Knight Commander of the Artillery Corps to bolster the, meagre, defences of Gozo.  The tower could relay messages from one end of the island to the other, from the Tower of Mgarr-ix-Xini in the south to the Ramla Battery on the north-east coast. St Cecilia Tower could also have provided a secure refuge for the local population in an emergency. The tower took its name from the small Medieval chapel nearby.

Fort St Agatha, Mellieha

Fort St. Agatha, also known as the Red Tower was built by Grand Master Lascaris in 1647. Work was completed on the tower which stands high on the Marfa ridge in 1648 and  fitted with artillery in 1649. At that time it was the furthest fortified outpost from Valletta. Fort St. Agatha is square in plan with four square corner towers that rise from the scarped wall of the lower cordon. The single floor of the tower is formed by two barrel vaulted rooms that stand on top of the lower cordon and is entered through a central door. A spiral staircase in the wall, nearly 14 feet thick leads up to the flat roof which acted as a gun platform and a place from which signals could be sent to and from Gozo, via St Mary's Tower on Comino. In the General Alarm of 1722, Fort St. Agatha was garrisoned by 49 men and armed with five cannon.