Marsalforn Tower

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The Marsalforn Tower was a defense tower near Marsalforn in the north of the Maltese island of Gozo . It was built in 1616 as the fifth of the Wignacourt Towers and stood until around 1715.

Construction

In contrast to the other towers built under the rule of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt , this one lacked the reinforced corner pilasters that characterize the typical appearance of the Wignacourt towers. The floor plan did not follow the bastion-like plan of the other towers either, with a basement at a shallower angle. In contrast, this tower was made higher and slimmer than the other towers, so that it overlooked the entire north coast of Gozo and its signals reached the Cittadella of Rabat .

The tower was built very close to the cliff, according to contemporary reports “ quattordici palmi nell'angolo suo più estremo ” - at the outermost point forty hand's breadths (about 30 meters) from the abyss.

history

It is not clear from the archives of the Order of Malta who financed the construction of the tower . In the financial reports of the order there is no mention of expenses for this tower, nor is a detailed list from 1680 mentioning it. As early as 1647, Francesco Arbela claimed that Wignacourt had this tower built with his own funds. From this, Spiteri draws the conclusion that the financing was independent of the order and therefore another fortress builder designed the plans, thus explaining the different construction methods. It was not until 1704 that the Marsalforn tower was listed in a register of the order. With a letter dated July 6, 1616, Grand Master Wignacourt announced the completion of the tower to the Governor of Gozo and instructed him to arm it.

As early as 1681, the friar Ugo de Vavilliers found the tower abandoned after the edge of the cliff had crashed. The tower was then re-crewed, but after the earthquake of 1693 the castellan reported that the structure had been damaged and that a large crack in the cliff reached below the foundation of the tower. The fortress builder Mederico Blondel, who was appointed as an expert there, noticed some cracks in the walls, but downplayed them in his report and claimed that the tower could stand for another century. But in 1701 the erosion of the cliff had advanced so far that the tower threatened to plunge into the sea. The order's appraisers therefore recommended abandoning the tower and building a new tower inland. Nevertheless, the defense system remained in operation until 1715, when the French ambassador Philippe de Vendôme was received from there with five gun salutes. In the same year, the French military draftsman Philippe Nicolas Milcent recorded the floor plan and elevation of the tower in precise plans so that the tower can be reconstructed. Shortly thereafter, the structure either fell or was removed.

literature

  • Stephen C. Spiteri : In the Defense of the Coast (I): The Bastioned Towers . In: ARX . International Journal of Military Architecture and Fortification. No. 3 , 2013, p. 44–46 (English, online ( memento of July 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).