De Redin Towers

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The St Mark's or Qalet Marku Tower , one of the thirteen de Redin Towers

The De Redin Towers are a series of thirteen fortifications in Malta that were built during the reign of Grand Master Martin de Redin from 1657 to 1660. These towers are named after him. Compared to the Wignacourt Towers , built between 1609 and 1614 , the task of these towers had changed. Much smaller and less armed, they were primarily used as observation posts, from which the garrison in Valletta and other places should be alerted when an enemy fleet approached . For this purpose, the towers, together with the Wignancourt Towers and the Lascaris Towers, were arranged within sight of each other, so that optical signals could be transmitted day and night. They were set up on sections of the coast where enemy troops could land due to the terrain.

Towers

The following towers were built:

  1. Għajn Ħadid Tower
  2. Għallis Tower
  3. St Mark's Tower , also Qalet Marku Tower
  4. Madliena Tower
  5. St Julian's Tower
  6. Aħrax Tower (White Tower)
  7. Bengħisa Tower
  8. Triq il-Wiesgħa Tower
  9. Xrobb l-Għaġin Tower
  10. Delimara Tower
  11. Żonqor Tower
  12. Ħamrija Tower
  13. Wardija Tower

After de Redin's death, other towers were built using the same construction principle:

  1. Mġarr ix-Xini Tower
  2. San Blas Tower

construction

The towers are roughly the same size and shape as the Lascaris Towers. They had a square footprint, a width or depth of about eight meters and a height of about ten to twelve meters. The ground floor was shaped like a truncated pyramid, above which the walls ran almost vertically. There was usually a storage room on the ground floor and the accommodation for the tower crew on the first floor. Access to this floor was via a retractable wooden ladder. From this floor there was also a spiral staircase partially built into the wall to the roof. The roof was provided with a low parapet over which the cannon placed there could fire. Optical signals could be given from here, day and night.

The construction costs were usually less than 500 Scudi . This meant that these towers were significantly cheaper to build than the Wignacourt Tower.

In contrast to the Lascaris Towers, the de Redin Towers could accommodate one or more cannons on the roof. This was achieved by roofing the interior with barrel vaults. As a rule, one or two iron 3-pounder cannons were placed on the towers. These were primarily used for alerting, but they could hardly be used to fight more heavily armed ships. In 1659, two moschettoni di posta were allocated to each tower , which are heavy muskets .

During the British colonial rule, these towers were initially still in use. In 1813, Captain Dickens proposed that the towers be reinforced and the order's coastal fortifications expanded. However, these plans did not come to fruition. In 1828, Captain Jones of the Royal Engineers suggested demolishing all the towers. He justified his suggestion with the fact that the towers would not withstand a bombardment with modern artillery for long, but an extension would be too expensive. The structural condition of the towers had deteriorated in the past few years, some were in a ruinous state, others needed repair. In 1832, Colonel Morshead, Chief Royal Engineer , ordered all towers to be demolished. Ultimately, demolition was abandoned and the existing towers were handed over to the local authorities. Only the Madliena Tower remained until after the Second World War and was adapted to the changed requirements.

  • Aħrax (White) Tower

  • Ghajn Hadid Tower

  • Għallis Tower

  • Hamrija Tower

  • Madliena Tower

  • St Mark's Tower

  • Wardija Tower

literature

  • Quentin Hughes : Malta. A guide to the fortifications , Said International, 1993. ISBN 9990943 07 9
  • Stephen C. Spiteri : The Knight's Fortifications: an Illustrated Guide of the Fortifications built by the Knights of St. John in Malta , Book distributors limited, 2001. ISBN 9789990972061
  • Charles Stephenson: The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945. Osprey Publishing Limited, Wellingborough 2004, ISBN 1-84176-693-3 ( Osprey Fortress Series 16).

Web links

Commons : De Redin towers  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Stephenson lists this tower twice as Qalet and Marku .
  2. ↑ Stephenson does not list this tower.
  3. ↑ The National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands lists the tower as one of the thirteen de Redin Towers. According to this count, however, the tower would be the fourteenth of thirteen towers. Spiteri refers to the year of construction after de Redin's death and does not count it among the original towers, but assumes that the construction goes back in part to de Redin's reign.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Quentin Hughes : Malta. A guide to the fortifications. P. 95ff
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Charles Stephenson: The Fortifications of Malta 1530 - 1945 , p. 18
  3. ↑ a b c d Stephen C. Spiteri : Naxxar and its fortifications. In: Military Architecture. Archived from the original on January 16, 2016 ; accessed on February 20, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ a b National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands: Madliena Tower (English; PDF; 630 kB)
  5. ↑ a b Stephen C. Spiteri: Madliena Tower - Malta's 'Martello' Tower on Military Architecture (English)
  6. ↑ National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands: Mġarr ix-Xini Tower (English; PDF; 370 kB)
  7. ↑ a b Stephen C. Spiteri: Mgarr ix-Xini Tower, Gozo on Military Architecture (English)