The Birkirkara Tower ( mt, Torri ta' Birkirkara), also known as Għar il-Ġobon Tower ( mt, Torri ta' Għar il-Ġobon), is a tower in

Birkirkara Birkirkara (abbreviated as B'Kara) is a city in the central region of Malta. It is the second most populous on the island, with 24,356 inhabitants as of 2020. The town consists of five autonomous parishes: Saint Helen, Saint Joseph the Worker, Ou ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. Its date of construction is not known, but it is believed to date back to around the mid or late 16th century.

History

The tower was built for defensive purposes in the inland areas of Malta in the early periods of the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

. In the 17th century the tower was aided with the building of another tower, the

Tal-Wejter Tower Tal-Wejter Tower ( mt, Torri tal-Wejter - It-Torri Wejter) is a tower in Birkirkara, Malta, which was built in the early 18th century by the Order of Saint John. It is also known locally as ''it-Torri tal-Misħun'' (English: ''Boiling Water Tower' ...

, to better facilitate communication with

Floriana Floriana ( mt, Il-Furjana or ''Il-Floriana''), also known by its title Borgo Vilhena, is a fortified town in the South Eastern Region area of Malta, just outside the capital city Valletta. It has a population of 2,205 as of March 2014. Floriana i ...

. The tower was included on the Antiquities List of 1925. It is now scheduled as a Grade 1 national monument by the

Malta Environment and Planning Authority The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA, mt, L-Awtorità ta' Malta dwar l-Ambjent u l-Ippjanar) was the national agency responsible for the environment and planning in Malta. It was established to regulate the environment and planning ...

, and it is also listed on the

National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands The National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands (NICPMI) is a heritage register listing the cultural property of Malta. The inventory includes properties such as archaeological sites, fortifications, religious buildings, mon ...

Architecture

Birkirkara Tower has a square plan, and its roof is surrounded by a high parapet wall. The latter contains six box

machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...

s;Military Architecture
. a pair at the left-side and two on the right-side, and one each at the front and back.

References

Fortified towers in Malta Birkirkara Limestone buildings in Malta Towers completed in the 16th century National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands 16th-century fortifications {{Malta-stub

History

Architecture

See also

References