Captain's Tower ( mt, Torri tal-Kaptan) is a

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

Naxxar Naxxar ( mt, In-Naxxar) is a small city in the Northern Region of Malta, with a population of 14,891 people as of March 2014. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. Naxx ...

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 ...

. It was built sometime after 1548 by the

Order of Saint 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 headq ...

. Today, the tower is in good condition.

History

The Captain's Tower was built by the

to house the captain of the

militia. It was built during the tenure of

Jean Parisot de Valette Fra' Jean "Parisot" de la Valette (4 February 1495 – 21 August 1568) was a French nobleman and 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, from 21 August 1557 to his death in 1568. As a Knight Hospitaller, joining the order in the ''Langue de P ...

, after the Order of St. John unsuccessfully tried to requisition the nearby

Gauci Tower Gauci Tower ( mt, Torri Gauci, it, Torre Gauci) is a tower in Naxxar, Malta. It was built before 1548 by the Gauci family. Today, the tower is in good condition. History Gauci Tower was built sometime before 1548 by Francesco Gauci to protect hi ...

in 1548. The Captain's Tower is one of the earliest Hospitaller fortifications in Malta. The tower's design is similar to the Gauci Tower as well as earlier Hospitaller towers in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

. The tower consists of a square plan with three floors. It contains a number of 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, and a ''columbaria'' which housed

carrier pigeon The homing pigeon, also called the mail pigeon or messenger pigeon, is a variety of domestic pigeons (''Columba livia domestica'') derived from the wild rock dove, selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distan ...

s to relay messages to

Mdina Mdina ( mt, L-Imdina ; phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤈, Maleṭ; grc, Μελίττη, Melite (ancient city), Melíttē; ar, مدينة, Madīnah; ), also known by its Italian-language titles ("Old City") and ("Notable City"), is a fortifications of Mdin ...

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

. The tower and the house built with it were used as a temporary hospital during the plague epidemic of 1675-6. The Captain's Tower lost most of its defensive value by the late 17th century, due to the construction of new fortifications such as the

Wignacourt towers The Wignacourt towers ( mt, 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. Backgr ...

Lascaris towers The Laskaris or Lascaris ( el, Λάσκαρις, later Λάσκαρης) family was a Byzantine Greek noble family whose members formed the ruling dynasty of the Empire of Nicaea from 1204 to 1261 and remained among the senior nobility up to the d ...

and

De Redin towers The De Redin Towers ( mt, Torrijiet ta' De Redin) are a series of small coastal watchtowers built in Malta by the Knights Hospitaller, Order of Saint John between 1658 and 1659. Thirteen towers were built around the coast of Malta (island), mainl ...

Present day

Today, the Captain's Tower is in good condition. It is privately owned and is not open to the public.

References

External links

National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
Fortified towers in Malta Hospitaller fortifications in Malta Towers completed in the 16th century Defunct hospitals in Malta Naxxar Limestone buildings in Malta National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands 16th-century fortifications {{Malta-geo-stub