De Redin towers

The De Redin Towers (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 survive. The Mġarr ix-Xini Tower, which was built on Gozo in 1661 after the death of de Redin, has a design similar to the De Redin towers. The Spanish knight Martin de Redin was elected Grand Master of the Order of St. John on 17 August 1657. In March 1658, he contributed 6428 scudi for the construction of 13 new watchtowers to strengthen the existing coastal defence system, which consisted mainly of the Wignacourt and Lascaris towers. The design of the new towers was based on the Sciuta Tower, one of the Lascaris towers, which had been built in Wied iż-Żurrieq in 1638. Each tower had a square base with two floors, with a turret on the roof. The entrance was on the top floor, and was reached by a retractable ladder. The upper room was used as the living quarters for the garrison of four men, while the bottom room was used for storage. Two cannon were mounted on the roof of each tower. Each tower also had two neighbouring towers in its line of sight, so that signals could be sent from one tower to another, in order to maintain a communication link between Gozo and the Grand Harbour. The signals consisted of smoke or cannon shots by day, or fire by night. Construction of the first tower, located at Għajn Ħadid in Selmun, began in March 1658, and it was complete within two months. Twelve other towers were built within the following year, with the last tower being complete by July 1659. In 1661, shortly after the death of de Redin, Mġarr ix-Xini Tower was built on the island of Gozo. Its design is very similar to the thirteen towers and it is sometimes considered to be one of the De Redin towers. The De Redin towers were the last series of coastal watchtowers to be built in Malta. The only tower built after them was Isopu Tower, which was completed in 1667.