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Concept
Wignacourt towers
Summary
The Wignacourt towers (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.
In 1418, the Maltese people made a petition to build a tower guarding the Gozo Channel, but nothing materialised. In the early 15th century, the local Mahras maintained several watch posts around the islands' coastline, and some of the posts possibly had a coastal watchtower. Despite this, there was a shortage of men and coastal defence was not very effective, with the islands remaining open to attacks by Moors or Barbary corsairs.
The Maltese islands fell under the control of the Order of Saint John in 1530. The Order initially established its base in Birgu, and later moved to Valletta. Both cities are located in the Grand Harbour, the main natural harbour in Malta. By end of the 16th century, the harbour area was extensively fortified, but nothing had been done to improve the coastal defences.
In 1598, a fleet of 40 Ottoman ships was sighted off Capo Passaro in Sicily. This led to efforts to build new coastal defences. In 1599, Grand Master Martin Garzez invited the military engineer Giovanni Rinaldini to examine the defences and suggest what improvements should be made. Garzez died in 1601 before any new defences were built, but he left a sum of 12,000 scudi in his will for the building of a new coastal watchtower. In 1605, construction of Garzes Tower began in Mġarr, Gozo. The tower was completed sometime after 1607.
Garzez's successor, Alof de Wignacourt, set out to build a series of towers around the coastline. The first of these, called Wignacourt Tower after the Grand Master, was proposed in 1609 and the first stone was laid on 10 February 1610. Five other towers were built over a ten-year period until 1620. The construction of five of the six towers was funded personally by Wignacourt, amounting to a total cost of 55,519 scudi. This amounted to one eighth of the Grand Master's total benefactions to the Order.
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