Dwerja Tower, Gozo

The Dwerja tower (also known as Qawra tower) was completed in 1652 during the reign of Grand Master Fra' Jean Paul Lascaris de Castellar (1636-1657) but it was built at the expense of the Universitas of Gozo (the local government). The tower formed part of the network of coastal protection of the Maltese islands and commands views over the sea passage from North Africa to Sicily.

Dwerja tower also overlooks Fungus Rock, famous for its rare and much prized medicinal plant.

The tower is 12 m square and its walls are 3.5 m thick. The lower floor is cut into the living rock and has a large rock cut well. The middle floor provided living accommodation for the guards while the small room on the roof was the powder store.

Access to the roof is via a stone staircase on the east side of the tower.

The tower was manned by a Capo Maestro, or bombardier or his adjutant, together with two other guards whose wages were also paid by he Universitas. The bombardier was able to supplement his income from the sale of salt collected from the nearby pans. The tower was armed with 3 six pound canon, swivel guns muskets and spontoons (pikes) provided from the armoury of the knights of St John. There is however no record of any of these weapons being fired in anger.

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.

Assumption of Our Lady, Gozo

According to tradition the earliest church dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady on Gozo was built in the first century AD, during the advent of St Paul the Apostle who converted the Maltese to Christianity. It was erected on the site of a pagan temple. During the Arab occupation of the islands the church of the Assumption fell into decay and it was only after the expulsion of the Arabs by Count Roger the Norman that the church was restored.

During the rule of the Order of St John, the Governor of Gozo sat in a decorated chair in the church on the side of the Gospel but outside the presbytery. He was entitled to Incense and Pax before the chapter and also to full military honours on arrival and departure from the island, similar to a Knight Grand Cross. In 1623 the Church of  the Assumption of Our Lady was made a Collegiate church by Pope Urban VIII, following the intercession of Bishop Cagliares. The Jurats of Gozo had special stalls in the church and like the Governor were entitled to Incense and Pax, after the clergy.

The present building was erected in 1697 to the design of Maltese architect, Lorenzo Gafa. Ironically for one of the great designers of the Baroque dome, the dome of the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady was never built. Instead the void was filled in and painted with a trompe l'oeil panel by Antonio Manuele of Messina.

 By a Bull of 16th September 1864, Pope Pius IX raised the Collegiate Church to the status of a cathedral.

Public Washing Place, Xlendi

In the Knight's day public washing houses near towns and villages were the only places where people could do their laundry. there was no running water and not everyone lived near a public fountain. The public washing place near Xlendi was covered over for the benefit of villagers using the facilities in bad weather. Fed by a spring the water runs through open channels into troughs of different sizes. The wash house was an intensely social space, the busiest place in the village where people passed the time together, gossiped, laughed and enjoyed each others company.

Fungus Rock, Gozo

Fungus Rock is a sixty meter high rock at the entrance to the black waters of the almost circular, Dwerja Bay, Gozo. The massive rock is difficult to access and can only be reached by boat and then by climbing the limestone cliffs. The summit of the rock is however fairly flat and this is where the plant grows that gives the rock its name. In the Maltese the rock is known as Hagret-el-General, because it is said that a Captain-General of the Galleys discovered the fungus growing there. However 'Fucus coccineus melitensis' is not a fungus at all but a strange species of parasitic flowering plant, about six inches high, that appears in the rains of December and January and continues growing until April. In the summer the plant dries in the Sun to produce  its 'valuable' crop.

 The Knights of St. John according to the historian Boisgelin found the fungus to be 'effective as a  treatment of dysentery'. It was also said to be good for drying ulcers, strengthening gums, curing spitting of the blood, hemorrhages of the womb and other disorders. The fungus soon gathered a great reputation in Malta where it was a highly prized treatment for all the above maladies. A person was appointed to gather the harvest which was preserved with the most meticulous care. The fungus was prescribed in the Sacra Infermeria (Hospital) in Valletta and distributed to any Knights or Maltese people who were in need of treatment. The fungus was also presented to foreign potentates and distinguished visitors to Malta.

 So highly prized was the fungus that in 1746 Grand Master Pinto made the rock inaccessible and  reserved to the Grand Master the sole privilege of gathering the plant. A guard was stationed on the rock who lived  in a small chamber cut from the living rock. Fungus Rock was connected to the mainland, fifty meters away, by two strong ropes along which a basket was suspended that could be moved by pulleys in order to supply the sentry and change the guard. Any unauthorized person trespassing on the rock was liable to a punishment of three years service on the galleys, and to deter them from making an attempt, any obvious handholds on the cliffs were broken off..

A little more than two hundred years later (1968) this lack of hand holds did not deter my father from taking the dingy across to Fungus rock with his two young sons and a friend. The sociopathic father was of the firm opinion that the best way to turn a boy into a man was to dangle him from a cliff at the end of a rope. The sea cliffs of Malta and Gozo offered him endless opportunities (unfortunately) to indulge his theory.  Father and sons were disembarked, abandoned  by  the step mother who returned to the mainland leaving the little party clinging on to the bottom of the cliff. Father, a far too keen climber made his way up the cliff followed by three little boys  roped together. Once on  the summit the party raised the Eight-pointed Cross of the Order of St. John and spent the night in bivouacs under the stars.

Ian Graham, Jimmy Graham, Stephen Bowles,
Fungus Rock,
Easter 1968

In the aftermath of this visit, reported in the local press,  no officials made it onto the rock to remove the Knight's Cross.  In the end there was no need, winter storms shredded the flag so that when the flag party returned after six months the remnant of the banner was left in tatters.

Fungus specimen
Collected 1968

Sad to say science has failed to find any medicinal properties in the 'fungus'. Nonetheless this specimen collected in 1968 remains a valued specimen in this cabinet of curiosities.