Antonio Manoel de Vilhena
Antonio Manoel de Vilhena (* 1663 , † December 10, 1736 in Valletta , Malta ) was the 66th Grand Master of the Order of Malta from June 19, 1722 until his death .
He was a Portuguese aristocrat of royal descent, the son of Sancho Manoel de Vilhena , the first count of Vila Flor . As such, he belonged to the Castilian tongue of the order .
In order to do justice to the growing population of Valletta , in 1724 he had the chessboard-like development plan submitted for the settlement of the belt of fortifications between Floriana and Valletta. There is still a statue of him in Maglio Gardens today . Fort Manoel in Marsamxett on Manoel Island was built under him from 1723. At the end of the late 1720s he had the Palazzo Vilhena in Mdina built and in 1731 the Manoel Theater (the second oldest in Europe), which is still in operation today. The old “Città Notabile” Mdina was partially restored by him, as you can see it today.
Also due to the population increase, he founded the Fondazione Vilhena , a foundation whose purpose was to build windmills to meet the food needs of the growing population of the Maltese archipelago. The only remaining mill from that period is the Ta'-Kola windmill in Xagħra on Gozo .
His tomb in the Cathedral of the Knights St. John's Co-Cathedral is considered the largest and most costly of all Grand Masters.
literature
- Baedeker : Malta. 5th edition, 1999/2000, ISBN 3875045440 .
- Gerhart Ellert : The Johanniter. Universitas-Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-8004-1385-X .
Web links
- Antonio Manoel de Vilhena at cilialacorte.com
- Antonio Manoel de Vilhena at smom-za.org
- The 79 grandmasters at orderofmalta.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Il-Mitħna ta 'Kola' / Ta'Kola 'Windmill. (PDF; 425 kB) In: National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands. Sovrintendenza tal-Patrimonju Kulturale, December 16, 2011, accessed on October 22, 2019 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Marc'Antonio Zondadari |
Grand Master of the Order of Malta 1722–1736 |
Ramon Despuig |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vilhena, Antonio Manoel de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | 66. Grand Master of the Order of Malta |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1663 |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 10, 1736 |
| Place of death | Valletta , Malta |