Fort Chambray
Fort Chambray is a fortress on the Maltese island of Gozo , built during the reign of the Order of St. John from 1749 . The fort, west of Mġarr , was the last major fortification built by the Order on Gozo. The fort was laid out in the bastionary fortress system according to Vauban's ideas and was largely preserved in its original structure until the beginning of the 21st century.
prehistory
The approximately six kilometers northwest of the main island of Malta lies and from this through the Gozokanal separate Gozo delivered to the 19th century, a large part of the needed food on the archipelago. Ottoman troops raided the island in 1547 and 1550 , and in 1550 more than 1000 inhabitants were abducted into slavery, which practically amounted to depopulation of the island. Together with the raids on the main island in 1548 and 1551, this led to a famine that caused the population to drop to the lowest level of this century. There was also the danger that Gozo could be used as a starting point for an invasion of the main island. The fortification of Gozo was therefore of certain importance. When the Order of St. John took possession of the archipelago, only the citadel of the capital Rabat , located in the interior of Gozo, was fortified. However, it was a medieval castle complex without bastions , which at that time no longer met military requirements due to the emergence of powder guns . The citadel was modernized and expanded by the order, but the terrain and the limited financial resources of the order did not allow a decisive reinforcement of this fortification. In the event of an attack, the citadel could also provide refuge to a quarter of the population of Gozo.
During the reign of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt , the Knights of the Order built a system of fortification towers known as the Wignacourt Towers in Malta and Gozo . On Gozo, the St Martin Tower near Mġarr was built in 1605 and the Marsalforn Tower in 1616 . These towers monitored coastal sections suitable for a landing. However, due to their size and manning, they could only be defended for a limited time in the event of an invasion, and they also offered no refuge for the population. Well suited for repelling raids and attacks by corsairs , they could not solve the problem of defending Gozo in the event of an invasion. Under Grand Master Jean de Lascaris-Castellar , further towers were built between 1630 and 1647 , but due to their construction they could not carry heavy weapons and could only be used as observation towers. The De Redin Towers , which were built during the reign of Grand Master Martin de Redin from 1657 to 1660, could accommodate a small artillery, but were also primarily used as observation posts.
Therefore, in 1599 Giovanni Rinaldi had already investigated the possibility of building a fort west of Mġarr. However, Rinaldi rejected his suggestion because the site intended for construction was dominated by the higher terrain in the north. He also considered the limestone to be too soft and insufficiently stable to build a powerful fortification.
In 1714 the construction of a fort was reconsidered after a report revealed the danger of an occupation of the island. The fort was to be built according to a design by the French engineer Jacob de Tigné . However, due to a lack of financial resources, construction was postponed indefinitely.
Construction and creation
In 1749, Lieutenant General Jacques François de Chambray , commander of the Maltese galleys, agreed to finance the construction of the fort. Although the fortress builders involved still had different views about the fort's layout, construction began quickly. Francesco Maradon was responsible for the construction. In 1757 the construction of the north-facing land front of the fort was largely complete.
The plant of the Fort follows that of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban developed bastionären fortress system. The land front consists of a broad central bastion and two side half bastions. All bastions are connected by a curtain wall. A wide dry trench is in front of the bastions and curtains. The central bastion, called St Paul's bastion , is protected by a counterguard , St Paul's counterguard , located in the moat . A ravelin was laid in the ditch in front of the curtain wall connecting the western St Anthony's bastion and the central bastion . The main entrance of the fort, located between the central bastion and the Notre-Dame demi-bastion to the east, was covered by another ravelin. At its western end, the moat was closed by a battery . On the enemy side of the trench, weapon stations were created in the receding corners . A covered path that was secured by traverses ran across the entire length . At the western end the path was closed by another battery. Access to the fort was from the gun yard in front of it via a bridge to the Ravelin and from there via another bridge to the gate in the courtyard. Both bridges had a section that could be folded up as a drawbridge . The trenches were dug into the limestone and the walls were built from this building material. As with the fortification towers, different types of limestone were used for the inner and outer walls. The space between these walls was filled with crushed stone. The north-facing land front was the most strongly fortified side of the fort.
The west and east facing sides of the fort were less fortified. A full-fledged bastion was developed from the northwestern St Anthony's bastion , which was originally planned as a half bastion. It was connected to the southwestern St Angelo's bastion (also known as Guardian Angel bastion ) by a long curtain wall. An oval powder magazine was built on this bastion in 1760, which was protected by additional walls. On the east side, a wall led from the Notre-Dame demi-bastion to the cliff. Gun emplacements were erected on this rampart, dominating the port of Mġarr. Since the terrain slopes steeply towards the coast in the south, a stronger fortification appeared to be unnecessary. This side of the fortress is only secured by a traverse. The installation of guns was obviously not intended there, and it was not possible to secure or even control the Gozo Channel .
Inside the fort, a planned city based on the Valletta model was to be built. The rectangular network of streets opened up twenty-four blocks, most of which were rectangular in shape. In the center of the fort, the governor's palace and a church were to be built in a larger space on opposite sides. Other blocks were intended for the construction of barracks and warehouses or, in the event of a siege, were intended to accommodate the population of Gozo with their cattle and other supplies. However, these plans were never implemented, the inner space of the fort initially remained undeveloped. The reason was the fact that the western and eastern fortifications of the fort were considered too weak and vulnerable. As early as 1761, Charles de Boulamaque proposed the construction of powerful retrenchments behind these walls. The construction of these facilities would have significantly reduced the space available for the construction of a settlement. Boulamaque also proposed the construction of a redoubt to the north . Ultimately, neither the redoubt nor the retrenchments were built, but these plans prevented the planned settlement from being built inside the fort.
Military use
French occupation of the islands
Fort Chambray was only used for military purposes. During the occupation of the island of Gozo, the French troops under General Jean-Louis-Ebenezer Reynier landed on the Rdum il-Kbir peninsula east of San Blas Bay on June 10, 1798. The 3rd Company of Grenadiers and the 95th Half-Brigade bypassed the four modern coastal batteries built in San Blas Bay and then attacked the Redoute on the right flank of the Bay. The defense of the troops of the order then dissolved. They backed away in disorder on Fort Chambray. The French troops followed them. After a few shots at the attackers, the garrison of the fort surrendered. At dusk, all of Gozo was occupied by French troops.
After the outbreak of the uprising of the local population in September 1798, the Royal Navy under Horatio Nelson, together with a Portuguese fleet under the Marquis de Nice, blocked the islands from October 12th. On October 28th, Captain Alexander Ball landed on the islands with a small contingent of British troops to support the uprising and above all to secure the urgently needed supplies. Fort Chambray was attacked and captured on the same day by British troops under Cresswell. Subsequently, the military conflict shifted to the main island, Fort Chambray remained in British hands.
British occupation
During the British occupation, the fort lost its military importance. The British initially concentrated on defending the area around the Grand Harbor . From the middle of the 19th century, the fort was overtaken by the development of artillery. Lieutenant-Colonel William Jervois , Deputy Director of Work for Fortifications and member of the Royal Commission on the Defense of the United Kingdom inspected Aden, Gibraltar and Malta from 1864–1866 and presented his report on Malta on June 23, 1866 under the title “Memorandum with reference to the improvements to the defenses of Malta and Gibraltar, rendered necessary by the introduction of Iron Plated Ships and powerful rifled guns ”. As a result of the report, coastal fortifications were expanded or newly built on the sections of the main island at risk of landing. The report did not provide for a fortification of the island of Gozo. Later British defense plans did not take Gozo into account either.
hospital
The fort subsequently served initially to accommodate British troops. Inside the fort, three-story barracks were built that could accommodate 250 soldiers. In 1830 a small hospital was built inside the fortress. It had four wards with its own kitchen and surgery. The hospital could accommodate twenty sick or wounded people. Contemporary observers rated the hospital as exceptionally comfortable.
In 1853 the Crimean War broke out. Until the end of 1856, the hospital treated wounded people from this war. Thirty large wooden barracks were built to accommodate them, each of which could hold fifty wounded people. In addition, several baths and two morgues were built. The staff consisted of a superintendent, a supply officer, a pharmacist, four surgeons and four field shears . The equipment has been described as extraordinarily good in contemporary reports. After the end of the Crimean War, the facilities were used by British seamen and soldiers, but also by the Maltese civilian population.
In 1882, during a British-Egyptian conflict, military and medical activities were resumed as part of the fight against the Urabi movement in Egypt. The massive influx of wounded began after the march to Kassassin and the battle of Tel-el-Kebir . In addition to military personnel, five nurses were also used to care for the wounded. The wounded were housed in a former barracks that could accommodate 150 to 200 patients.
During the First World War , the hospital mainly received convalescents . As a result, the overcrowded hospitals in Malta, such as the Royal Navy Hospital Mtarfa , could be relieved. A total of 1,579 soldiers were treated from October 1915 to March 1916. In October and November 1915 the hospital accepted 2,000 wounded per week from the Battle of Gallipoli , and between 2 and 9 December 1915 another 6,341 wounded from the Salonika expedition . With the decline in the number of wounded, the convalescence facility was closed in March 1916.
graveyards
There were a total of 3 cemeteries on the area of the fortress. They were created from 1800. A Protestant cemetery was located inside the fortress. Two more, one for Catholics and a second for Protestants, lay outside the fortress walls in the moat. The garrison cemetery for the British troops was ruthlessly demolished in the mid-1980s to make way for a tourist facility. However, the facility was never built as planned. Among the destroyed tombs there were also culturally and historically valuable free-standing sarcophagi built in the neoclassical style. The remains of the cemetery were finally removed in July 1991 and the dead were transferred to the Santa Maria cemetery near Xewkija . The destruction of the cemetery is seen in part as a severe loss of the island's cultural heritage and an act of vandalism.
Civil use
The hospital within the fortress was no longer used by the military from 1916. From 1934 to 1983 the facility served as a psychiatric clinic , in which up to 200 chronically ill people were admitted. The former accommodations for married soldiers were used as a leprosy station because they were far away from the psychiatric clinic . The station began operations on December 9th when fifteen patients were transferred from the main island. Use of the facility called Sacred Heart Hospital ended in 1956.
In 1971 a hotel complex with 320 beds was to be built. In 1987 a local organizer tried to offer so-called fortress holidays. In the early 1990s there were again projects to expand the area into a holiday complex. All projects and work were stopped in July 2003. In 2004, then Minister for IT & Investment Austin Gatt signed an agreement with a Gozitan businessman. The aim of this agreement was to convert Fort Chambray into a luxury apartment complex. The project should be completed in 3 phases. In the last few years there has been an increasing amount of controversy over how the Maltese government should conduct sales. There is also a public warning that the building of the apartments will destroy the historical building fabric.
literature
- 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 978-99909-72-06-1 , (English).
- Quentin Hughes : Malta. A guide to the fortifications. Said International, 1993, ISBN 99909-43-07-9 , (English).
- Charles Stephenson: The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945. Osprey Publishing Limited, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-836-7 , (English).
Web links
- Kevin Cauchi: Fort Chambray. Għajnsielem municipality , accessed on February 3, 2020 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quentin Hughes: Malta. A guide to the fortifications. Pp. 80-83.
- ↑ a b c d e f Quentin Hughes: Malta. A guide to the fortifications. Pp. 77-79.
- ↑ on the structure of the land front see also the description by Stephen C. Spiteri
- ↑ on the structure of the fort see also the illustration by Stephen C. Spiteri
- ↑ Quentin Hughes: Malta. A guide to the fortifications. Pp. 20-24.
- ↑ Quentin Hughes: Malta. A guide to the fortifications. Pp. 24-36.
- ↑ Donald M. Schurman, John Francis Beeler: Imperial Defense, 1868-1887. Routledge, 2000, p. 32.
- ↑ a b c d e f see Chambray Hospital and the Cemetery. ( Memento of July 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Ghajnsielem.com
- ↑ Mark Micallef: Fort Chambray far from abandoned. The Times of Malta , January 3, 2010, accessed February 3, 2020 .
Coordinates: 36 ° 1 ′ 15 ″ N , 14 ° 17 ′ 36 ″ E