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
A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...
in
St. Paul's Bay,
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 the first of six
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 ...
to be built, and the first stone was laid on 10 February 1610. It replaced the role of
Ta' Tabibu farmhouse which was previously known as Dejma Tower. An
artillery battery was added a century later in 1715. Today the tower is a museum of fortifications around the Maltese Islands.
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.
History
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
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 ...
, allocated funds for the building of
Garzes Tower on Gozo. Garzes' successor,
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 ...
, 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 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 ...
.
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''.]British rule
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...
, 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 wheel of the drawbridge still exists, as well as the door and its key of the main entrance.
Present day
In 1967 the government issued a call for tenders for the lease of the tower, and it was leased to Din l-Art Ħelwa in 1970. It was restored between 1973 and 1976. During restoration, the tower's turrets were completely rebuilt. A marble plaque with the following inscription was installed above the ground floor entrance:
Since 1998, the tower has been a museum, and its exhibits include models of various fortifications found in the Maltese islands, reproductions of items used by the tower's occupants in the 17th and 18th centuries, old photos and a restored cannon.
In popular culture
*The tower was depicted on a postage stamp issued by MaltaPost in 2006.
References
11. Farrugia Randon Stanley, Wignacourt Tower and Walks in St Paul's Bay
12. Farrugia Randon Stanley, Wignacourt Tower 400 Years
External links
National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
{{Batteries in Malta
Wignacourt towers
Batteries in Malta
Defunct police stations in Malta
Post office buildings in Malta
Former post office buildings
Museums in Malta
Buildings and structures completed in 1610
Military installations established in 1715
Museums established in 1998
National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
1610 establishments in Malta
Limestone buildings in Malta
1715 establishments in Malta
Buildings and structures in St. Paul's Bay