A_ERDF 039 Book PDF copy

Valletta

Eighteenth-century plan of Valletta’s
bastioned land front fortifications with new
outer works as proposed by the Order’s
French military engineers. (Image source:
National Library of Malta).

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

this land front that the Knights continued to invest most of
their efforts to improve the city’s defences in subsequent
centuries, particularly after 1630, when it was no longer
possible to reconcile Laparelli’s scheme with the then-
emerging contemporary views of fortress design which had
come to dictate the need for more aggressive outer works
placed ahead of the main enceinte so that these could
absorb the momentum of enemy attacks.

the failure to complete the manderaggio and the arsenale, Among the first engineers to subject Valletta’s defences
the new fortress was very much as Laparelli had intended to the new doctrine of defence-in-depth was Pietro Paolo
it to be. Valletta quickly achieved international renown as Floriani. His new outer perimeter, projected some 300
a classic of the engineer’s art and was eulogized in Daniel canne (c. 600m) ahead of the main front (later known as
Speckle’s treatise Architectura von Festungen published in the Floriana Lines), however, took too long to complete
Brussels in 1589. and as a result the Knights were obliged to create, in the
meantime, a screen of four counterguards closer to the land
The Order transferred its convent from Birgu to the new front. These impressive bulwarks, built on the counterscarp
city in 1571, and thereafter, Valletta became the military just outside the ditch, were designed in 1640 by Giovanni
and political centre of the Order’s government. In the de Medici, the Marquis of St. Angelo. A unique feature of
following centuries it was transformed into the focal point these impressive opera avvanzate was the manner in which
of the complex network of defences which grew outwards they were linked to the main bastions by means of large
to envelope the adjoining harbours and, at a later stage, arched bridges, designed to carry soldiers and cannon
the island’s shores and coastline. By 1798, Valletta had across the span of the main ditch in the shortest route
become, literally, the inner keep of one large island fortress. possible.

As a fortress, the essence of Valletta’s defences was its Again, in the early eighteenth century Valletta’s land front
land front – a solid and mighty screen of four rock-hewn was given a new screen of outer defences in the form of an
bastions and curtains backed by two towering cavaliers, advance ditch, a covertway and a countermined glacis. This
all protected by a deep ditch cutting across the neck of was the product of the work of French military engineers
the peninsula – a formidable shield knit of dressed stone who were invited to Malta by Grand Master Perellos.
and virgin rock that was built to withstand a determined Headed by the Brig. René Jacob de Tigné, a former pupil
siege and was capable of taking anything that a besieging of Marshal Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, France’s
force could be expected to throw at it. It was here, along greatest military engineer, the French military mission
introduced many new features and ideas in the design of
the old enceinte. Amongst these, for example, was the idea
to build gunpowder magazines – one such large bomb-
proof gunpowder magazine was eventually constructed à la
Vauban inside St. John Cavalier.

The end of the seventeenth century Valletta had also
witnessed the enclosure of the northern tip of the peninsula,

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

St. John Bastion

& Cavalier

St. John Bastion forms one of the four important and
massive bulwarks protecting Valletta’s land front. It is a
large pentagonal bulwark largely carved out of the bedrock
and was also one of the first bulwarks to be completed
after the initiation of the construction of the fortified city in
1566. The bastion contains two low batteries (piazze basse)
in its flanks each protected by a massive rounded orillion
believed to have been grafted onto the shoulders of the
bastion around 1582. A sally-port opening in the right face
of the bastion provided a means of communication, via an
arched bridge, to St. John Counterguard, which was built to
protect the bastion in 1640. The parapet of St. John Bastion
is pierced by six embrasures, the largest examples of their
type to have been built in the Hospitaller fortifications of
Malta. This bastion had a very heavily consumed masonry
fabric, and fissured bedrock, requiring various types of
interventions to repair the damaged stonework and remove
the rampant spread of vegetation that had taken root on the
faces of the bulwark. The terrace platform of the bastion
is a popular public garden. Commanding the bastion is a
large towering pentagonal cavalier, one of the two central
cavaliers dominating the land front defences of Valletta.

Detail of the deteriorated masonry fabric
of St. John Cavalier prior to restoration (VLT 03).

View of the right flank and orillion of
St. John Bastion prior to restoration (VLT 07).

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Valletta

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

ERDF project survey
drawings showing plan and
elevations with deterioration
mapping of the walls and
superior slope of the parapet
of St. John Bastion prior to
restoration (VLT 07).

St. John Bastion
prior to
restoraton.

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Valletta

Various views of St. John
Bastion and its right piazza
bassa prior to and during
restoration.

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

Two views of St. John
Bastion and its left orillion
after restoration, as seen
from the entrance to Valletta.

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Valletta

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

Various views of St. John
Cavalier prior to and after
restoration works.

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Valletta

ERDF project survey drawings
showing plan and elevations with
deterioration mapping of the walls,
terrace platform, polverista and
superior slope of the parapet of
St. John Cavalier prior to restoration
(VLT 03).

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

St. James Bastion

& Cavalier

St. James Bastion forms one of the four important and
massive bulwarks protecting Valletta’s land front defences.
It is largely carved out of the bedrock and was one of
the first bulwarks to be completed after the initiation of
the construction of the fortified city in 1566. The bastion
contains two low batteries (piazze basse) in its flanks,
each protected by a massive rounded orillion believed to
have been grafted onto the shoulder of the bastion around
1582. A sally-port opening in the right face of the bastion
provided a means of communication, via an arched bridge,
to St. James Counterguard built to protect the bastion in
1640. St. James Bastion, unlike its St. John Bastion, does
not retain its original parapet. This bastion had a very
heavily consumed masonry fabric, and an eroded and
fissured bedrock, requiring various types of interventions to
repair the damaged sections, in places even requiring the
pinning of unstable sections of the rock-face with steel ties.
Commanding the bastion is a large towering pentagonal
cavalier, one of the two central cavaliers dominating the
land front defences of Valletta. St. James Cavalier houses
the Centre for Creativity and is a popular cultural institution.

Detail of the deteriorated masonry fabric
of the salient of St. James Bastion prior to
restoration.

Aerial view of St. James Bastion and
Cavalier.

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Valletta

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

ERDF project survey drawings showing
plan and elevations with deterioration
mapping of the walls and superior slope of
the parapet of St. James Bastion prior to
commencement of restoration works
(VLT 09).

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Valletta

Flank and orillion of
St. James Bastion after
restoration.

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

Left face of St. James Bastion
after restoration works with orillion
and echaugette.

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Valletta

ERDF project survey drawings 131
showing plan and elevations with
deterioration mapping of the walls,
terrace platform, and superior slope
of the parapet of St. James Cavalier
prior to restoration (VLT 10). Left,
views of St. James Cavalier.



View of the echuagette, salient and
faces of St. James Bastion
after restoration.

ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

SS. Peter
and Paul Bastion

& Castile Curtain

SS. Peter and Paul Bastion is a large, two-tiered bulwark which
anchored Valletta’s enceinte on the Grand Harbour side of the land
front. The bastion was largely carved out of the bedrock forming the
main land front ditch. The bastion originally contained a low piazza
bassa in its right flank before this was roofed over and converted
into a gunpowder magazine by the British military in the course
of the 19th century. The bastions flank is protected by a massive
rounded orillion believed to have been grafted onto the shoulder
of the bastion around 1582. A sally-port opening in the face of
the bastion provided a means of communication, via an arched
bridge, to the tiered counterguard built to protect the bastion in
1640. This bastion had a very heavily consumed masonry fabric
and fissured bedrock, requiring various types of interventions to
repair the damaged stonework and to remove the rampant spread
of vegetation. The restoration task was made more difficult owing
to the extreme height of the bastion walls, which exceeded 50m
along the Grand Harbour side of the ditch. The bastion terrace is
a popular public garden and scenic viewing point for the Grand
Harbour.

Detail of the deteriorated masonry fabric
of SS. Peter and Paul Bastion prior to
restoration.
Aerial view of SS. Peter and Paul Bastion
during restoration.

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Valletta

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

Restoration works in
progress along the face
of SS. Peter and Paul
Bastion.

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Valletta

ERDF project survey drawings
showing plan and elevations with
deterioration mapping of the walls,
and superior slope of the parapet of
SS. Peter and Paul Bastion
and corresponding rock-hewn
counterscarp, with arched bridge
spanning ditch, prior to restoration
(VLT 06).

Restoration works in
progress along the face
of SS. Peter and Paul
Bastion.

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

View from Senglea across
the Grand Harbour showing a
restored SS. Peter and Paul
Counterguard and nearby
outer face of Bastion after
restoration. The casemated
battery in the right hand
corner of the photograph
is Lascaris Battery, a 19th-
century British work of
coastal defence designed to
protect the inner reaches of
the Grand Harbour. This did
not form part of the ERDF
project.

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Valletta

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

ERDF project survey
drawings showing plan
and elevations with
deterioration mapping of
the walls and parapet of
Castile Curtain prior to
restoration (VLT 09).

Detail of the state
of preservation of
Castile Curtain prior to
restoration.

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Valletta

Castile Curtain during
restoration works.

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

St. Michael
Counterguard

& Bridge

St. Michael’s Counterguard is a massive three-tiered
artillery platform, one of four counterguards designed by the Italian
military engineer Giovanni de Medici in 1640, in order to provide
added protection to Valletta’s land front. This counterguard was
built in the form of a stepped battery, owing to the inclined nature
of the terrain. Structurally, the counterguard is a solid massif with
few internal covered spaces, the main elements of which are
vaulted communication passages which link together the tiered
artillery platforms, and a 19th century gunpowder magazine. It is
also linked to a sally-port in the face of St. Michael Bastion directly
by means of an arched bridge while a ramp, cut through the gorge
of the counterscarp around 1735, leads down into the main ditch.
The counterguard also had a Chapel dedicated to St. Roque which
was used to provide religious services for the people quarantined in
Lazaretto, just across Marsamxett Harbour. This chapel was erected
in 1643 but was demolished during the World War Two.
The ERDF 039 project sought to restore the counterguard and rebuild
the demolished chapel of which various remains, including an altar,
had survived. The project also set out to open the counterguard to
the public after many years in which it was inaccessible, when it was
used as a farm.

Detail of the consumed masonry fabric
of St. Michael Counterguard prior to
restoration.
Aerial view of St. Michael Counterguard
during restoration.

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Valletta

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

ERDF project survey drawings
showing plan and elevations with
deterioration mapping of the walls,
terrace platforms, polverista and
superior slope of parapet of
St. Michael Counterguard prior to
restoration (VLT 08).

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Valletta

State of preservation
of St. Michael
Counterguard prior to
the commencement of
restoration works.

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ERDF 039 The Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Historic Fortifications of Malta

State of preservation of the echaugette
and remains of Chapel of St. Roque
on St. Michael Counterguard prior to
commencement of restoration works
and after completion..

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