Hi Dave.

Thanks for this info. We are staying in the St Pauls Bay area for a week next month so will check this one out,

Trev

A bit more Rinella Battery.
Built by the British in 1879 as matching pair the other one is the Cambridge Battery ( now the swimming pool for the hotel Crown Plaza) 1878 they were built to counter the threat from the Italian Navy (Regia Marina Italiana) 1860 formed after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, who's navys fought along side the Knights of Malta in the battle of Lepanto 1571. to counter this threat they were fitted with 100 ton guns, the Armstrong guns could fire a 864kg projectile every 15 minutes and was worked by steam these guns were soon outdated and were never fired in anger, it is sited in between Fort Ricassli and Fort St Rocco.
Most afernoons there is a display by Maltess men dressed in 18 century British costum that have brought the Battery back to life and is well worth a visit.

Dave

Just a bit more, Fort St Elmo.

When the Knights of St John landed in Malta in 1530 all that was on the point between the two harbours was a run down watch tower, the Knights started work on the new fort in 1533 and had finished it by 1556.
In the Great Siege of 1565 the Turks used all there canons and attacked it for 31 days, with Grandmaster De Valletta sending more troops over to keep it going, when the Ottoman corsair Dragut arrived he sealed off the route the Knights used to resupply the fort with troops and the fort was doomed.
In holding out for so long the turks lost 8000 men, the fort was rebuilt on the same lines as before but was rendered immune to a land attak with the buildeing of the fortfied city of Valletta, and the rear of the fort was secured by the bastion wall 1687-89 as we see today from the sea.
The British use the fort in WW11 and in one famous attak the guns of the fort shot up a group of Italian speed boats trying to get in the Grand Harbour, after the British left the local police used it, you can also see it in the film Midnight Express 1977 as of all things a Turkish prison.
In the lower fort is the War Museum very good, and there is a one hour show in the main courtyard of the fort on some Sundays called In Guardia
a self guided tour leaflet shows the main points of intrest.

Dave

A sad end. Fort Tigne this fort was constucted on the site across the water from fort St Elmo to gaurd the entrance to the Marsamxett Harbour between them they could put canon fire to keep any ship out of the harbour, built on Dragut Point the site where the Ottoman corsair died in the 1565 siege this was the last fort to be built by the Knights and the first not to use Bastion walls.
The fort was a diamond shaped with a large round tower at the rear, the main body of the fort was set in a counterscarp with three galleries for musket fire for any one who got into the ditch reached by tunnels from the main fort. Pre bored countermines further proteted the fort and a fortified barracks protected the men.
The fort was armed with 28 canon and 6 mortars, the British took over the fort in 1800 and used it for coastal defence right up till World War 11. Today with all the new building work all that is left of this fort is the round tower a sad end to a fine old fort.

Fort St Rocco, proposed in 1866 this sea battery was one of two built by the British, the other was Fort St Leonardo with work starting in 1873 and completed by 1878 the fort was then ready to repel any battleshipsand fitted with two of the three 12-inch 38 ton guns the biggest used in Malta at this time. The British remodeled the fort in 1900 at a cost of £15.116 and by 1916 had accommodation for over 120 men along with a electric motor room. In WW11 on the morning of June the 26th 1941 targeted and destroyed a Italian ship with a salvo at 8000 yards and also along with Forts Tigne, Madalena and St Leonardo on the morning of 17th may 1942 searchlights lit up a fleet of E boats, Fort St Rocco hit one at a range of 10.000 yards.
The Fort is now part of the Malta film studios and makes a good half day out if you are in this part of the island and many good films have been made here over the last few years

M dina. the walled city pronounced im-deena was built and named by the Arabs 870 till 1090, after Roger the Norman through them out most of Malta's noble men built fine palaces here, most can be found on or just of the main street Trig Villegaignon. M dina fall from grace came with the Knights of St John who built the new town at Birgu ( Vittoriosa ) and then Valletta, M dina was then known as the Citta Vecchia ( old city ). After the Great Seige of 1565 the knights built its impregnable bastions walls as you see today.
The big bluff. After the Turks falled to take Birgu they moved there army to attack M dina the city had sent most of its troops to help out at Birgu and had only women and peasants so the commander kitted them out as soldiers lined them along the walls and as the Turks made ready for there attack they opened up with all cannon and guns they decided this is tougher than they had thought and pulled back, the great bluff had worked.
After the French had kicked out the Knights it was here that the Maltese started there uprising when the French started to lot there churches.
In WW11 the R A F used the Xara Palace as a billet for there airmen, now a 5* hotel
Places to see, St Pauls Cathedral rebuilt after a earthquake 1697-1702 by Lorenza Gafa it became a co-cathedral when the Knight built St Johns in Valletta it has a baroque interior with the same floor plan of tomb slabs as St Johns, Pallazzo Falzon 1495 and now a museum with fine paintings and antiques. Heritage attractions are (M dina Experiene, Knights of Malta, Medieval Times and Tales of the Silent City) also take the kids to the M dina Dungeons a wax work of torture (Great) by the main gate, also by the main gate is the Palazzo Vilhana 1730 the Museum of Natural History and the Cathedral Museum 1733, the Carmelite church 1660, Palazzo Santa Sophia 1233 said to be the oldest house in M dina.
One of the best views in Malta can be had from the Fontanella cafe on bastion street, a glass of red wine looking over to Mosta and down to Valletta and the coast.
From M dina you can walk to Rabat to see the underground grottos and catacombs of St Catald, St Paul and St Agatha.
One of the best days out on Malta be sure to go by the local bus as the tour firms charge a arm and a leg to take you.

Dave

Vittoriosa / Birgu
In 1530 when the knights of St John landed in Malta all that stood in Birgu was a few houses and a run down fort, the fort of St Angelo the knights made this town there base and made safe the fort it was not untill 1536 that the land front was fortified and more work to stengthen the wall begain 1552 til 1560 when the ditch was deepened and the bastions enlarged.
The land front of Birgu was a line of walls with two bastions the right one is St Johns and the left one is St James which Baldassare Lanci built a cavalier, facing St Salvatore hill stood a demi bastion called the Post of Castile.
Forward then to 1565 and the Great Seige of Malta, the Turks made the biggest mistake of the seige by attaking Fort St Elmo first and losses were so high in man power and time ( see Fort St Elmo above ) that some of the heart had gone from them when they started there attack on Birgu and Isola. Two knights caught by the Turks told them that the Post of Castile was the weekest point when it was one of the strongest and this is where the Turks attacked first only to be repelled big time and they found out with much loss of life they had been had.
For days on end the Turks fired there cannons at the walls of Birgu and Isola and then they would charge at them hoping to get in a breach, one trick they tryed was to drag boats over from Marsamusett Harbour to the Grand Harbour and set a course for a weak spot in the walls only to be blown out of the water at point blank range by a unseen line of cannon.
At one point near the end of the seige a breach was made and the Turks got on to and into town only to be forced back when Grand Master La Valletta and some of his body guard beat them back not long after the Turks lost most of there will to fight and tried there luck at M-dina, ( also see above )but with the news of fresh troops they upt and left. So after the seige Birgu became Vittoriosa (the undefeated one)

The walls and bastions were rebuilt after the seige but with the building of Valletta Vittoriosa lost its way untill enter yes the British,
Places to visit there is not a great deal of tourist sites or cafes but the Church of St Lawance and the Oratory of St Josephs were you can see La Valletta's hat and sword along with many other things of intrest in this small museum, then there is the Maritime Museum and the new Casino de Venezia along with the sites of the Great Seige of Malta.
Dave

Hi Dave, saw this and thought of you http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=184262

Regards
Sliema2

Hi there Sliema2 just the sort of thing, I remember a few years ago walking up round this part of the fort the fence had been broken down and me and Mrs Holidaymaker had a look in some of the old bunkers that the army had left, not much to see just like old ruins this is why it seems odd that they are going to make them good when they have let the old fort get knocked down.

Dave

Vittoriosa 2
With the building of Valletta compleated the Knights made plans to refortify the area around the three towns of Vittoriosa/Senglea and Cospicua, in 1638 the Margherita Lines to protect the town of Cospicua then in 1670 Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner's began the Cottonera Lines to a design by the Duke of Savoy's engineer Marizio Valperga. A vast semi circle from Sanglea around the Margherita Lines and Cospicua then on to the Post of Castile at Vittoriosa a lenth of 4,572 Mts with eight large bastions and two demi-bastions the area could hold up to 40,000 people, the work almost bankrupted the Grand Master and came to stop on his death. Some of these walls were used in the film Gladiator with Russel Crowe, most of these formidable fortified shelter still stand and the Zabbar Gate is most impressive.

After the British beat the French who named these towns the Three Cities Malta became a Crown Colony this was the hay day for this area with British ships of the line at anchor in what was to become the home of the Mediterranean fleet. During WW11 the Germans brought near total destruction to this area after bombing it for 27 months and Britan gave Malta 30.000.000 pounds to help rebuilt it.

Two good ways to see this area are, The Vintage Omnibus Co a two hour tour which you can get the ferries in Sliema most days bar Sundays and a trip round Dockyard Creek (galley creek) in a Dghajsas or Dicers.

Senglea/L'Isla do not offer much as again most of its site were lost in the war, fort St Michael was knocked down by the British but it is worth the walk to the Safe Haven Gardensto see the Vedette for the views of the Harbour, and Valletta from the other side of the harbour.

Dave

Hi Dave, yes that struck me as odd aswell, also, on the subject of britain paying Malta 30 million to re:build after WW11, I think they should have paid Malta a whole lot more than that because had the british not had there fleet and garrison on Malta (which were obviously there for nothing more than imperial and financial reasons to the economic and aggressive benefit of the british empire and not for good will purposes as has so often been written the island was of course under british colonial rule because it suited the british government), then Malta would probably not of suffered a fraction of the damage and loss that it did in the war, it was for it's strategic purposes that britain occupied it in the first place of course, this opinion is not just held by me but it is something that I have heard many times being said by lots of people in Malta even up to this day, yes people could say that Malta benefitted financially through local income and general trade but that could have been achieved via any occupying power or even by full independence at that time, don't forget that there were calls for independence from britain as far back as the 1800's, so I think that the losses both human and financial that WW11 brought to Malta could quite probably of been avoided or at best reduced, the only good thing from Malta's point of view is that it eventually expediated full independence from britain in 1964 but obviously with the military agreement that allowed british forces to remain on Malta until 1979, so from 1979-2004 Malta was fully self governed, until of course until May 2004 when they sold out to Brussels, don't get me wrong I am fully pro-Europe and the EU, but I think it suits some country's better than others and I just can't help feeling that Malta was probably better off out of it as do a lot of the Maltese population.

Regards
Sliema2

*Edit to remove non English part which is against T&C - Glynis*

Hello Sliema 2
Yes I agree fully with you but, if the British in Malta had not put a stop to the convoys to supply Rommel then he would have won the battle of El Alamein and got to the oil fields and with a luck (for him) the out come of WW11 may have had a differant end. Plus they did give Malta a medal.

Dave

I agree generally with much of what has been said but I do think that things were very different years ago when the British were in Malta compared to today. Don't get me wrong I'd be the last person to promote empire building but I'm sure that many years ago it would have been safer for Malta and suited them, to be part of our empire than to have tried to go it alone. After all economically, they didn't have the tourist industry then that they have today!

Malta is only a tiny Island but because of its strategic position I am sure that Dave is quite correct when he indicated that the outcome of the war would have been different if they had been invaded by the Nazis. Had it not been for this would we have been so desperate to have sent the codename 'Pedestal' convoy to Malta in August 1942?? Mind you I bet if you were there then you'd have been relieved to see the few remaining ships from the convoy limp into Grand Harbour!

Although there was a great loss of life Maltese, British and other allies, if the Islands had been invaded, I just wonder what the Nazis would have done to the folks living there?

Today Malta is a great place to visit. I like to think that if the Maltese have learned anything from us, it will be at least the democratic way they govern their country.

Even though they are part of the EU (for better or worse!), I hope that there will always be that special bond between our two great nations and that we will be there to support and help each other should the need ever arise,

Trev

Hi Dave & Trevor, thanks to you both for your input on this subject, I knew that you both would have an opinion and I have read with interest what you both said, I think that things like this are important talking points especially for those amongst us with an interest in the countries that we visit, history has made Malta what it is today along with every other country in the world, and I think that having a knowledge of the countries we visit past and present helps "the thinking tourist" understand different cultures and the way that a country operates much better, thus enabling the visitor to get more out of a visit, so more history please gentlemen.

Very best wishes to you both
Sliema2

Gozo, Malta's little sister a long swim of 4 miles from the main island with about 26,000 people living here and is half the size of Malta and some say 50 years behind as well. There is no airport so you must fly in to Malta and then tranfer by ferry, there was a helicopter link but that has stopped for the time being.
So is this the island of the legend of Calypso and Odysseus we may never know for certain but a visit will give you food for thought. Gozo's history goes back some 5,500 years to the Temples of Ggantija some of the oldest building in the world, the Phoeicians named it Gwi and the Byzantines called it Gaudos, with the Arabs of the 9th century calling it Ghawdex. It was the Aragonese who named it Gozo.
In 1544 fourteen years after the Knight of St John had arrived that scourge of a Turk Dragut Rais (see above) raided the island and along with his brother how was killed and burned by the governor, Dragut swore revenge and in 1551 returned and captured most of the islands population of 6000 and tuck them for slaves. the island was raided six more time in the 16th century and was only in the 17th century that the Knights rebuilt the citadel to what we see today.
In 1798 the French invaded Gozo along with Malta and as with Malta met with little resistance, but soon after the Gozitans rebelled and besieged the 50 strong french army and in 1800 the French surrended, it was during this brief time that the Gozitans had indendence from Malta.

Victoria (Rabat) named after Queen Victoria in 1897 to mark her Diamond Jubilee but most of the locals it is still Rabat the capital and hub of the island with its mourning market It-Tokk is the place to be till lunch then the place goes back to sleep.
The citadel high on a steep hill has four museums though the Armoury is never open the other three are worth a look, the Cathedrel is a must if only for its trompe l'oeil dome.
Some other things to see while in Victoria are 360 show just up from It-Tokk, and behind it is the Basilica of St George in my view one of the best Churches on the islands.
Marsalforn, one of Gozo's main holiday destinations with a small sandy beach a dive school a few good hotels and the odd bar and restaurant to keep you happy along with the evening Passeggiata.
San Lawrenz, has good walks along the cliffs and the inland sea along with the Azure Window and Fungus Rock. this village is the only one to be named after a saint, (poor St Lawrence was roasted to death over a gridiron in AD 258)
Ta'Pinu the Basilica of Ta'pinu is a shrine and church of pilgrimage, in 1883 a local woman from Gharb, Carmela Grima heard a voice calling from the old chapel. The voice told her to say three hail Marys, in memory of the three days my body rested in the sepulchre.
Xlendi, the old fishing village is small with some sea front bars/restaurants and a few hotels with safe swimming and the only disco on the isand just up the hill on the way to Munxar.
Mgarr, the place that most people land is the port of Mgarr and get the bus to Victoria but you can also hire a car and get to see more of the island this way, why not have a look round Fort Chambray paid for by the the Knight Jagues de Chambray, work begain in1749 and finished in 1761 it put up a brief defence against the French in 1798.
This is just a small sample of what Gozo has to offer.
Dave

In the last of this run of the history of Malta, it would be a sin not to include Valletta the Capital of Malta. Started in 1566 after the Great Siege of 1565 and with there fortifications in ruins Pope Pius IV sent over Francesco Laparelli and with the help of Gerolamo Cassar his Maltese Assistant the city was completed by 1571, just five years start to finish.
So what of this city built by gentlemen for gentlemen as some one once said. The dry ditch at the front of the fortifications was dug so deep that if the walls did fall into the ditch they would not make a bridge to cross into the city, two massive bastions gaurd the city gate and two demi bastions for the sides along with two counter gaurds and two cavaliers the front of the city was safe. With curtain walls down both sides and more bastions built into the walls, the rebuilt Fort St Elmo at the tip the Knights of St John moved into there new city much of what you see today is the same as in 1571.

Built in a gride of seven streets crossed with streets that look down to both harbours some with many steps, you enter City Gate ( built by the British for bigger access in the 60s or was it the 50s) on to Repubblika street this runs all the way to fort St Elmo and is the main street of the city. If you take a left after a few shops and cafes you will end up at the ramparts and the Hasting Gardens for great views of the Marsamxett harbour and Fort Manoel, or turn right and the ruin of the Opera house (bombed in WW11) there has been talk of doing something with it ( but it is all talk ) then on to two churchs St Catherines and the first chuch to be built in Valletta Our Lady of Victories ( where Grand Master De Valletta was first inturned ) across from here you can also see the baroque Auberge De Castille et Leon built by Cassar and remodeled for Portuguese Grand Master Pinto in 1744. Still keep going right and you should end up the upper Barracca Gardens with fine views of the Grand Harbour/ Senglea and Vittoriosa (said to be the best view on the island.
If you walk strait down Repubblika St first you have the church of Santa Barbara then on to Auberge de Provence ( ArchaeologyMuseum ) and then one of the best bits the Co Cathedral of St John with eight chapels and paintings by M Preti and the Caravaggio the Beheading of St John this is the must see of Valletta.

Hi Dave, saw this and instantly thought of you mate http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=193996

Happy reading
Sliema2

Thanks Sliema2, very good. Mrs Holidaymaker always says I was in the Great seige of Malta in another life, perhaps I was there as well.
Had a great time in Portugal seen so many sites and tuck about 200 photos its going to cost me an arm and a leg to get them all done.

Cheers Dave