Fort St Angelo guarding the harbour. This is a quintessential view of Malta from the capital, Valletta. Many assume that the Knights built it for the Great Siege of Malta, but this is not correct.
When the Knights of St John1 arrived in Malta, they had the memory of being kicked out of Rhodes fresh in their minds. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted them “that barren rock” Malta where “grain refused to grow”. Not having any other better options, the Knights accepted this.
They sailed into the harbour under the watch of a single castle, in ruins, that defended the entire island. The Knights brought masons, carpenters and blacksmiths with them. They set about restoring and rebuilding the castle to protect themselves from attack. The suburbs that grew around the castle is the city we now call Birgu.
In 1541, leading Italian military engineer Antonio Ferramolino arrived from Bergamo. He strengthened the walls of this castle, created an elevated platform and numerous bastions around the peninsula. Importantly, he created a moat to separate the castle from the rest of the island.
Fort St Angelo, as it became known, remained as it was until 1687, more than a hundred years after the Great Siege. Grand Master Gregorio Carafa worried that the fort would not withstand further attack. He brought Don Carlos de Grunenberg, a Flemish colonel, to take a look at the fort.
Read more about the Ottoman’s tactic in the Great Siege of Malta.
Don Carlos was a military engineer and his background helped him recommend specific improvements. He was impressed with the fortifications and the need to reinforce Fort St Angelo. He was loyal to the Knights and resolved to pay for improvements himself2. He built parallel batteries rising from the shelving rock formation around the peninsula.
And so, Fort St Angelo became what it is today through the personal intervention of this Flemish (now Belgian) Don Carlos. It is he we have to thank for what is now a perennial view of Malta’s Grand Harbour.
What other Belgian influence in Malta do you know of?
- History of the Knights to the present; Carnaval.com; (Retrieved 2018-08-15) [↩]
- National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands, Fort St Angelo, 2013[↩]