Garzes Tower ( mt, Torri Garzes, it, Torre Garzes or ''Torre della Garza''), also known as Saint Martin's Tower ( mt, Torri ta' San Martin), was a watchtower built in

Mġarr Mġarr ( mt, L-Imġarr), formerly known as ''Mgiarro'', is a village in the Northern Region of Malta. Mġarr is a typical rural village situated in an isolated region, west of Mosta. It is surrounded with rich farmland and vineyards. Many of it ...

, Gozo 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 ...

in 1605. It was named after

Martin Garzez Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

, the Grand Master who financed its construction, even though it was eventually built after his death during the Magistry of

Alof de Wignacourt Fra Alof de Wignacourt (1547 – 14 September 1622) was a French nobleman who was the 54th Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 10 February 1601 to his death in 1622. Unlike a number of the other Grand Masters, he was popul ...

. The tower was demolished in the 19th century, some remains were reused for the building of a bridge, and the site was developed with a hotel. It was built to the design of

Vittorio Cassar Vittorio Cassar ( mt, Vitor Cassar, 1550 – 1609), born Gio Vittorio Cassar, was a Maltese architect and military engineer. The son of the renowned architect Girolamo Cassar, he was admitted as a knight within the Order of St. John in 1587. H ...

. A number a coastal towers, built by Grandmaster Wignacourt, are traditionally attributed to Cassar and based on the Garzes tower. However this is probably based on speculations It is likely that Cassar's design of Garzes Tower was used, and adequately modified, to built the other towers due to their similarity in their military architecture.

Background

In the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, Gozo was prone to attacks by Barbary corsairs, along with most of

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 ...

and other coastal areas in the Mediterranean and Europe. The harbour of

was commonly used by pirates to replenish with water and plunder the surrounding area. The worst attack occurred in July 1551, when Ottoman forces aided by corsairs tried to take over Malta but failed so they landed in Gozo, besieged the Cittadela and took almost the entire population of about 5000 to 6000 people as slaves (with the exception of a monk, some 40 elderly Gozitans and about 300 who managed to escape and hide). The slaves were taken aboard Ottoman ships from Mġarr Harbour itself. Before this attack, there had already been proposals to build a tower to guard Mġarr Harbour and the

Gozo Channel The Gozo Channel is short stretch of Mediterranean Sea separating the Maltese island of Gozo from the northern tip of Malta. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to at its northeastern end. At the centre of the channel are t ...

. In 1418, the people made a petition to build such a tower but nothing materialized. In 1599, a report was made about the defence of Gozo, and the military engineer Giovanni Rinaldini made it clear that a tower was necessary in that area to prevent any future attacks. The Grand Master at that time,

, realized this so he decided to finance the building of a tower himself. He allocated 12,000 scudi for the building of the tower, but he died in 1601 before construction even began.

The tower

Construction of the tower began four years after the Grand Master died, in 1605. It was still under construction in 1607. It was built on a promontory, between Wied il-Kbir and Wied Biljun. The tower had a number of guns mounted on its roof which had equidistant embrasures along each of its sides. In the mid-18th century, a bastioned enceinte was proposed around the tower, but it was never built. Eventually,

Fort Chambray Fort Chambray or Fort Chambrai ( mt, Forti Xambrè) is a bastioned fort located in the precincts of Għajnsielem, on the island of Gozo, Malta. It was built in the mid-18th century by the Order of Saint John, in an area known as Ras it-Tafal, be ...

was built on the opposite side of Mġarr. The tower had a small chapel dedicated to St Catherine of Siena and later St Martin that was intended for use by the four militia members in the tower but was also open to the public. It became an unofficial parish church for the people of the nearby villages. After 243 years, the tower was demolished in 1848. Its masonry was used to build the bridge linking Mġarr to

Nadur Nadur ( mt, In-Nadur) is an administrative unit of Malta, located in the eastern part of the island of Gozo. Nadur is built on a plateauand is one of the largest localities in Gozo. Known as the 'second city', it spreads along a high ridge to t ...

. The Mġarr Hotel was built over the site of the tower, but it has since closed down.

Legacy

Although the tower no longer exists, it still has an important place in Malta's history. This was the first coastal watchtower built by the Order. Garzes' successor,

, later built a series of large watchtowers or small forts that are known 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 ...

. Other Grand Masters built smaller watchtowers such as the Lascaris 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 Order of Saint John between 1658 and 1659. Thirteen towers were built around the coast of mainland Malta, eight of which still surv ...

. Since Garzes Tower has been demolished, the oldest tower still standing in Malta is the

Wignacourt Tower Wignacourt Tower ( mt, Torri ta' Wignacourt), also known as Saint Paul's Bay Tower ( mt, Torri ta' San Pawl il-Baħar), is a bastioned watchtower in St. Paul's Bay, Malta. It was the first of six Wignacourt towers to be built, and the first ston ...

in St. Paul's Bay, which was built in 1610. The oldest tower on Gozo is the

Xlendi Tower Xlendi Tower ( mt, Torri tax-Xlendi) is a small watchtower near Xlendi Bay, within the limits of Munxar on the island of Gozo in Malta. The tower is one of the Lascaris towers and dates to 1650; it is currently undergoing restoration. It is the ...

that was built in 1650 ( a tower in Marsalforn had also been built in 1616 but it collapsed in around 1715).

References

{{Historic Watch Towers of Malta Fortified towers in Malta Hospitaller fortifications in Malta Towers completed in 1607 Buildings and structures demolished in 1848 Demolished buildings and structures in Malta Għajnsielem Former towers 1605 establishments in Malta Limestone buildings in Malta 17th-century fortifications 1848 disestablishments in Malta