This year a group of Knights and their families and friends followed in the footsteps of their illustrious forefathers like Sir James Sandilands as they travelled to the island of Malta.
In previous centuries knights travelled to the island to be initiated and invested with office. The island has become synonymous with the Order and today the influence of the Order is everywhere from language to architecture. The island’s history stretches back over millennia but it was the influence of the Knights of St. John which shaped the island we see today.
The visit this year has been organised by David’s Chosen Few Royal Black Encampment No 21 encamped at Drumraw.
Flying from Belfast International airport yesterday the group spent the evening getting settled in and were ready today for the first day of a packed itinerary.
Our first day in Malta, the weather is glorious and with the party staying in St Paul’s bay overnight we began the trip by making the same journey as St Paul who was ship wrecked on his way to Rome.
The best site to see St Paul’s island is the Wignacourt Tower one of a series of defensive towers built around the island.
It was built by Grand Master Wignacourt as part of a ring of defensive towers which encircled the island turning it into a fortress. The walls are up to 6 meters thick and was designed as a watch tower and defensive position which could be manned by a small force. Wignacourt Tower was the second tower to be built in the Maltese islands, after Garzes Tower on Gozo. It was also the first tower to be built on the main island. As Garzes Tower was demolished in 1848, Wignacourt Tower is now the oldest surviving watchtower in Malta
By the end of the 16th century, Malta’s harbour area was extensively fortified. However, the rest of the islands was virtually undefended, and the coastline was open to attacks by Ottomans or Barbary corsairs. This began to change in the early 17th century, when Martin Garzez, Grand Master of the Order of Saint John, allocated funds for the building of Garzes Tower on Gozo. Garzes’ successor, Alof de Wignacourt, set out to build a series of towers around the coastline, which were personally funded by him and came to be known as the Wignacourt towers.
The first tower was built to protect St. Paul’s Bay, and was called Wignacourt Tower after the Grand Master. On 7 November 1609, plans and a model of the tower were presented to the Order’s council. The first stone of was blessed and laid on 10 February 1610, and the accompanying ceremony was personally attended by Wignacourt himself. The tower cost 6748 scudi, 7 tari and 10 grani to build.
Although there are claims that the tower was designed by Vittorio Cassar, he disappears from the Order’s military records in around 1603. Cassar died in around June 1609, before work on the tower began. The architect of Wignacourt Tower was probably an unknown Maltese capomastro.
The tower was the only major fortification in the north of Malta until the construction of Saint Agatha’s Tower in 1649. It had Qawra Tower (built 1638), Buġibba Battery (built 1715) and Mistra Battery (built 1761) in its line of sight.
Layout & Living Quarters
The original entrance to Wignacourt Tower was through a stone staircase which led to the upper floor; from here, occupants would have to use a rope or ladder to descend to the floor below (today’s entrance at road level). Though the staircase was eventually removed to make way for the road, the original arched entrance and door still remain. The present main entrance on the ground floor is, unfortunately, not the original.
The soldier in charge of the defence of the tower lived on the upper floor. He had his bed, a place for a fire with a ventilation shaft, a toilet, and a well for fresh water. Timber holes in the walls suggest the existence of a secondary wooden floor, supported on beams, intended to provide sleeping quarters. The lower floor was accessible through a trap door and used for storage. A spiral staircase is now in place for visitors.
The Tower in Action
The garrison of Wignacourt Tower, which was commanded by a master bombardier, kept watch for signs of approaching enemy ships. In 1614, only four years after construction, a strong attack by a Turkish fleet was launched. It seems that at the sight of the tower, the fleet entered through Mellieha which was not defended until the building of the Red Fort in 1649.
In 1715, a coastal battery was added to the tower to increase its firepower. The armaments throughout most of the 18th century consisted of two 6-pounder iron cannon, similar to the one deployed on the roof, and three 18-pounder iron cannon placed on the battery at the foot of the tower on its seaward side. Buttressing was added to the lower half of the structure in around 1761.
After Malta came under British rule, the tower began to be used as a police station. A postal agency was located within the police station between 1891 and 1921, and during this period a postmark reading “St. Paul’s Bay” was used. The police station closed in 1931, and from 1937 to 1963 the tower was occupied by the Post and Telephone Department.
The tower’s original entrance was on the first floor, and it was approached by a drawbridge from a flight of stone steps. The steps were removed in the 1950s when the road in front of the tower was widened. An entrance was added on the ground floor. The tower has been recently restored by the Maltese Government and the latest addition to the museum was the original 400-year-old key to the tower, which was donated to the museum by a local collector.
St Paul’s Bay
It’s turret provides an amazing view over the bay with the island in the centre being the reputed site of St. Paul’s landing on Malta. Here the island where he first set foot gives some indication of the trype of land he met.
The group was given a guided tour by local historians and volunteers who have restored it and enjoyed a talk in the history of the Order and their building of fortifications here.
The original tower has been restored and now houses a museum to the Knights of Malta where the party were treated to a guided tour followed by photo session from the top of the tower where the Knights once stood guard over the Island and indeed Christian Europe.
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