Yesterday Valletta – Malta’s capital city – commerated the 445th anniversary of the laying of it’s first stone so I thought it appropriate to post this pic – a small example of it’s outer fortifications (first line of defence).
When Malta was given to the Knights of St John as a feufdom in 1530, they immediately realised the strategic importance of Mount Sceberras, a promontory between Marsamxett and Grand Harbour and made plans to build a city there. But having settled at the Castrum Maris (castle near the sea – now Fort St Angelo) across the Grand Harbour and because of lack of funds and the knowledge of an imminent attack by the Turks they decided that instead to strengthen the existing fortifications around the Castrum Maris . After the Turkish defeat in 1565, when all Christian Europe was exalted by this great feat of Malta and the Knights, and the Knights having had word that the Turks were making preparations to assault Malta again with a still bigger force the following summer, the Grand Master Jean de La Valette decided that it was time to build the new city. Funds poured in from all over Europe for this purpose and the Vatican sent its best military engineer, Laparelli, to plan and oversee the construction –the city was then named after this greatest of the Order’s Grand Masters. The Knights continued to improve their fortifications throughout their stay in Malta - in fact Valletta was considered impregnable. The extraordinary thing is that when they came to the test to defend themselves in 1798 against an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte and his French fleet, the Order gave in without a fight.
