Cittadella (Gozo)
| Cittadelle Citadel Victoria |
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|---|---|
 View from the south |
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| Data | |
| place | Victoria |
| architect | several |
| Client | Order of St. John |
| Construction year | 13th Century |
| Coordinates | 36 ° 2 '47 " N , 14 ° 14' 22" E |
As Cittadella is citadel of the Maltese city of Victoria on the island of Gozo called. Located on a rock north of the city center, it houses the Assumption Cathedral and the Bishop's Square of the Diocese of Gozo . At the time of the Roman Empire there was an acropolis on this square . A castle was built there in the Middle Ages . After the archipelago was taken over by the Order of St. John in 1530, the complex was rebuilt and expanded. Between 2007 and 2014 the Maltese government had the citadel extensively restored after extensive research.
prehistory
The first fortification of the square is assumed for the Bronze Age around 1500 BC. During the rule of the Phoenicians the fortified place was used continuously. In Roman times the acropolis of the settlement Glauconis Civitas was built here . Buildings from these periods have not been preserved.
middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, a castle was built on the rock, which was first mentioned in 1241. The almost circular floor plan of the walls follows the contour lines of the terrain. The facility was called Gran Castello . Corresponding to the time it was built, it consisted of high, vertical walls and there were no bastions . As the historian of the Order of St. John, Giacomo Bosio, reports, there were numerous houses inside the castle. Windows were knocked into the outer walls of the castle for these residential buildings.
Time of the Order of St. John
In 1524, some knights of the Order of St. John inspected the archipelago to check whether it was suitable for the order to settle. They also visited the Gran Castello in Gozo. However, contemporary reports describe the castle as molto picciola , i.e. very small. The fortifications were considered inadequate and in poor condition. After the order took possession of the archipelago, they first considered demolishing the castle completely. But he decided to repair the castle complex. During the invasion of Gozo by Ottoman troops under Turgut Reis in July 1551, the castle fell into the hands of the invaders. Many residents were able to flee through the windows knocked into the walls after the storm on the castle. In total, about 6000 residents of the island were taken into slavery, which resulted in the island being depopulated. The castle was badly damaged during the siege and the storm. Reports that speak of complete destruction are not very credible, since otherwise the complex would have to have been rebuilt in its original, medieval form. During the siege of Malta in 1565, Gozo was spared combat operations as the island was not attacked by the Ottomans.
To commemorate the siege battles and the perished or abducted residents, after the restoration was completed in 2015, the island administration had a monument with an eternal flame set up inside a gilded rose and the gilded year 1551 in front of the walls of the citadel.
After successfully warding off the invasion, Francesco Laparelli , who also planned the construction of Valletta , visited Cittadella and submitted proposals for expanding the castle using a bastionary fortification system. A corresponding drawing by Perez d'Aleccio was published in Rome in 1582. It shows a short curtain facing the city and flanked by two half-bastions. According to this proposal, the ramparts of the fortress lay on the edge of the rock, as with the castle. There are doubts about the direct assignment of the drawing to Laparelli. The drawing shows rounded orillons, which are atypical for Laparelli's designs.
In 1599 Giovanni Rinaldi inspected the facility. He found that the rock on which the castle was built was very soft and criss-crossed with numerous crevices and caves, which made it easier to build mine tunnels . The castle was also within shooting range of the surrounding heights. Rinaldi therefore proposed the demolition of the castle and the construction of a new fortress near Marsalforn . Alternatively, however, he also made suggestions for the renovation of the castle. The proposal for demolition was rejected and the renovation of the facility began in 1601. Vittorio Cassar was commissioned with the construction .
The heart of the complex is the south-facing central bastion , the St Michael's bastion named after the Archangel Michael . To the west is St Martin's bastion , to the east is St John's demi-bastion . The bastions have rounded orillons , as shown by d'Allecio's drawing. This detail corresponds to the old Italian manner, which was obsolete at the time of construction, while the size of the central bastion already indicates the new Italian manner. A dry moat runs in front of the south-west, south and east sides of the fortress. St Martin and St Michael are connected by a curtain wall that houses the main entrance to the fortress, shaded by the western orillon of St Michael’s . In front of this curtain wall is a ravelin in the ditch. Access was via a small bridge to the Ravelin and from there via a longer bridge to the main gate. A covered path was laid out on the far edge of the ditch . Between the central bastion and St John’s there was a gun area in front of the trench . The construction of the bastions was completed in 1610. The facility was supplemented by two cavaliers . The St John's cavalier behind the St John's demi-bastion was completed in 1614, the St Martin's cavalier behind the bastion of the same name in 1622. The surrounding walls of the medieval castle remained otherwise unchanged. The Cittadella has been preserved in this form to this day.
Despite the improvements, the fortress remained a compromise. The fundamental problems, such as the porous rock and the dominant heights around the fortress, could not be solved by the renovation. The fortifications on the west and north sides did not meet the requirements of the 17th century. In addition, the fortress could accommodate a maximum of a quarter of Gozo's residents. Various sides had therefore repeatedly suggested that the fortress be razed and a new fort built near Marsalforn. In 1643 it was decided to demolish the fortress. The construction of the new fort was to be financed with a tax on wheat. The residents of Gozo protested because they could not afford the additional tax burden. Faced with the choice of building the building from its own resources, the order postponed the demolition and the new construction. The great alarm of 1645 raised fears about the fort's steadfastness. Giovanni Bendinelli Pallavicino and Louis Viscount d'Arpajon therefore proposed the evacuation of the citadel. The walls of the castle had actually already been undermined for demolition, but the feared Turkish fleet did not materialize.
Antonio Maurizio Valperga , who had designed the Cotonera Lines , submitted an ambitious and very detailed proposal in 1670 for the renovation of the Cittadella and the fortifications of Victoria. His proposal included the construction of bastions in the west, north and east in front of the rock and the conversion of St Martin’s , St John’s and the battery into three mighty bastions. A dry ditch was to surround the whole complex and Victoria was to be surrounded by a mighty fortification. Three bastions on the southern edge of the city formed the core. A ravelin was to be placed in front of the curtain wall between the central and east-facing bastions, over which the access to the city was laid. Access to the city was also planned in the curtain wall between the central and western bastions. To the north, curtains with further city gates were connected to the bastions, which were closed off by elongated half-bastions. These bastions were supposed to flow into the moat that surrounded the citadel at the Ravelin or Waffenplatz. Victoria was also to be surrounded by a dry trench with covered paths and weapon areas. Within the city, the original, grown layout of streets and squares was to be retained, only a strip between the Cittadella and the city should remain free of buildings. Valperga's plans were accepted. An implementation was not carried out, however, as other fortifications were more urgent and the resources of the order were insufficient for the realization.
In the years that followed, improvements were limited to details. Mederico Blondel had a battery built on the east side of the citadel in 1690 . This battery covered the east side of St John's and made it possible to coat the foot of the east wall with flanking fire. From 1703, Claude de Colongues dug a double trench from the citadel to the lower town. This remained completely unpaved. It was not until 1714 that René Jacob de Tigné proposed the construction of a fortified city wall. The Cathedral of Santa Marija was built between 1697 and 1711 based on designs by the Maltese Baroque architect Lorenzo Gafà inside the citadel. The episcopal palace was located next to the cathedral.
In 1722 the Order finally decided to abandon the fortress and build Fort Chambray near Mġarr . The facility was no longer of military importance, but was largely retained in its former condition. In 1886 the houses opposite the cathedral and leaning against the fortress walls were demolished. In 1956, the place in front of the cathedral called Cathedral Square was lowered a few meters. In the northern part of the fortress, the former barracks were converted into a prison in the 19th century. Part of Bieb-l-Imdina-Strasse disappeared . The steps from St Michael’s to the sideline gate were also partially built over.
restoration
In 1998, the Maltese government had the consumption of the system in the World Heritage of UNESCO requested. Since 1995, the Cittadella has been part of the list of cultural assets of Malta under the consecutive number 3 . Between 2007 and 2013, the Cittadella was extensively restored. This measure was part of a project that included monument conservation work in Valletta , Mdina , Vittoriosa and Cittadella. The project cost around 36 million euros , 85 percent of which was co-financed by the European Union . The restoration was also necessary because the soft rock on which the complex was built had given way, which led to the collapse of parts of the medieval wall on the north side. Visitors to the citadel are shown a film about the history of the complex in an information center in the basement area.
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 978-9-99-097206-1 (English).
- Quentin Hughes : Malta. A guide to the fortifications , Said International, 1993. ISBN 9-99094-307-9 (English).
- Charles Stephenson: The Fortifications of Malta 1530 - 1945 , Osprey Publishing Limited, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-836-7 (English)
- Superintendence of Cultural Heritage: National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands, Ċittadella
- Gowin Vella: An AntiConformist Proposal Regarding the Fortification of Gozo in The Gozo Observer , Issue No. 18, June 2008.
Web links
- Restoration of the Cittadella on militaryarchitecture.com (English)
- Victoria, Local Council, Historical Note (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands, Ċittadella (English; PDF; 340 kB)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Restoration of the Cittadella on militaryarchitecture.com (English)
- ↑ Victoria, Local Council, Historical Note ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Quentin Hughes: Malta. A guide to the fortifications , pp. 80-83.
- ↑ Since English is the official language of the Republic of Malta and only the English-language terms are used in the specialist literature, these are also used in this article.
- ↑ the bastion is sometimes referred to as St Philip , see Restoration of Cittadella
- ↑ a b Gowin Vella: An AntiConformist Proposal Regarding the Fortification of Gozo (English)
- ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center, Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) (English)
- ↑ ERDF Fortifications Restoration, Malta on Military Architecture (English)
