St Agatha's Tower

ST AGATHA’S TOWER (The Red Tower) Saint Agatha’s Tower or the “Red Tower” as it is popularly known, formed part of a vast coastal defence system of fortifications and watch towers built by the Knights of the Order of Saint John during the 17th and 18th centuries to protect the coastline from incursions by the Ottoman Turks and the Barbary corsairs from North Africa. It was built over two years in 1648-49 during the rule of the French Grand Master from the Langue of Provence, Jean Paul Lascaris de Castellar. The Grand Masters were elected for life by their fellow knights and most of them are remembered for the building of fortifications, churches, magnificent palaces or auberges, aquaducts, and other notable works of civil engineering commissioned during their administration. The banners adorning the inside of the tower show the family coat of arms of eight Grand Masters in two quarters and the flag of the Order of St. John in the two other quarters. A book on the table on the left as you enter contains information on all the Grand Masters who ruled Malta between 1530 and 1798. Before the arrival of the Order in 1530 and well into the first decades of the 17th century, the North West part of Malta was very sparsely populated. It was totally unprotected from raids by the Turks and corsairs who plundered crops, livestock, fresh water, and carried off men, women and children into slavery. The beaches in this part of the island made landings easier and the need to create a system of watch towers had long been felt. Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt set the ball rolling by building St. Paul’s tower in St. Paul’s Bay in 1609 and St. Mary’s Tower on the island of Comino in 1622. Completed in November 1648 the Red Tower was fitted with cannon in 1649. This fortified watch tower is situated on the commanding heights of Marfa Ridge above Ghadira Bay and overlooks the Island of Comino and the Gozo Channel to the North West. With its cannon it could cover the sandy bay below as well as part of the channel, providing cross-fire with the tower on Comino. At the time of its construction it was the furthest outpost from the city of Valletta and thus also served as a signaling post for communication between the sister island of Gozo via St. Mary’s Tower on Comino. The Tower’s Structure. The only access to the tower was up a steep flight of steps connecting to the main entrance by a drawbridge. It consists of four different levels. Below the main hall is a water cistern which stores rain water falling on the roof. The well head on the right side of the main hall as one enters, now covered with steel mesh, enables visitors to look down into it. It can hold up to 53,000 liters of water and could supply fifty soldiers for some forty days. The second level incorporates the main hall which is divided into two vaults and this is where the garrison lived. They cooked, ate and slept there and also kept their armour, weapons and gun-powder. In the far right corner of the inner vault there was a niche with a small altar dedicated to the Tower’s patron, St. Agatha. St. Agatha was an early Christian martyr who was born in Catania in nearby Sicily. She was repeatedly tortured and imprisoned by her admirer, the Roman Prefect, Quintianus, whose advances she rejected, but she was never subjugated and remained true to her faith until her death in 253 AD. It was common for the Knights to name fortifications after saints as they were a religious order besides being soldiers and hospitaliers. The majestic Red Tower remained an invincible symbol of strength likened to that of St. Agatha. A marble plaque with this dedication can still be seen over the main entrance of the tower. A cross above the date “1814” etched in the wall separating the two vaults on the left is probably associated with the outbreak of the plague in these islands in that year. The third level was accessible from a stone spiral staircase leading on to a gallery which in turn gave access to another floor made of wooden planks resting on the stone ledges on the sides of the vaults. These ledges can still be seen in the inner vault. This floor was intended to accommodate reinforcements. Usually the tower was manned by some three to five members of the Militia but, if the Knights had information that an incursion was being planned, they could reinforce the tower by some fifty extra soldiers and this third level provided the additional sleeping quarters. The spiral staircase, now rebuilt in wood, leads up to the gun platform on the tower’s roof. Originally the tower was equipped with four guns but in 1722 the Congregation of War ordered that a fifth cannon should be mounted. These provided all-round cover. In January 2014, Din l-Art Helwa installed two genuine 17th century cannon mounted on replica wooden gun carriages. The square roof is flanked by four turrets, two of which are normally open to visitors. These provided shelter for the guards from the wind and rain in winter and from the sun in the summer. They were also used to store gun-powder and weapons. From the gun platform the guards could view the adjacent towers: the White Tower and the tower of Ghajn Hadid, now a ruin after an earthquake, and the towers of Ghajn Tuffieha and Nadur. These were part of the signaling chain which connected the Red Tower to Valletta on the East coast and the old capital city of Mdina in the centre of the Island. Warning of the enemy’s approach was usually transmitted by the lighting of a beacon or the firing of cannon. This was picked by the next tower in line and passed to the next tower in sight by the same means in relay fashion, thus providing an efficient early warning system. An 18th century addition to the Red Tower was the low star-shaped defence wall or entrenchment surrounding the tower. This provided a first line of defence against enemy forces approaching the tower. It is not certain why the tower was painted red, but in old maps of the area it was always called ‘La Torre Rossa’. Tradition has it that in construction, its stone took the colour of the surrounding fertile soil, rich in iron ore, or simply it was painted red to make it recognizable from afar. More Recent History. The tower was never attacked by the Turks or corsairs during the period of the Knights and it served as a strong deterrent against further incursions in the North West extremity of the Island. However, in June 1798, under the French Knight, St. Simon, it capitulated to the invading Napoleonic French army only to be retaken by the Maltese insurgents three months later. During the British period, on the formation of the Royal Malta Fencible Regiment in 1815 a detachment of artillery under a subaltern was detailed to garrison the Tower. Throughout the 19th century and in the first three decades of the 20th Century it intermittently served as a coast guard outpost. During the second World War it served as company head quarters to E Company, 1st Battalion, the King’s Own Malta Regiment, with Maltese officers and men which were then responsible for the first line of defence of the Mellieha and St. Paul’s Bay area against the expected Axis invasion of Malta, which, though planned in great detail by the enemy, was fortunately never put into action. The remains of a WW2 machine gun pivot support is still embedded below the main window in the inner vault. The iron rungs on the side of the spiral staircase are also vestiges of this period and provided the only means of access to the tower’s roof as the original stone staircase had been damaged and collapsed in part throughout the ages. The tower was never directly bombed or machine-gunned by enemy aircraft though some randomly dropped bombs fell close by. DIN L-ART HELWA. The Maltese National Trust. Din l-Art Helwa (This Fair Land – the opening words in the Maltese National Anthem) is a non- governmental, non-profit making and voluntary organization, founded in 1965. It was granted the management of the Red Tower in 1998 for the purposes of restoration when the Armed Forces of Malta, that had been using it as a radar coast-guard station, no longer required it. Din l-Art Helwa began restoration works and completed them over a period of two years. As the photos in the inner vault show, the tower was derelict and dilapidated, its turrets in danger of collapse and many of the castellations were missing or damaged. The exterior walls had suffered centuries of erosion from the elements. The original stone paving in the main hall was discovered under a layer of material and this was uncovered and is now visible through glass panels in the protective parquet flooring. All this work involved great expense and would not have been possible without the sponsorship of three generous companies, namely the Demajo Group of Companies, Toly Products Limited and Playmobil Malta Ltd. In 2003 the Red Tower was granted in formal Guardianship to Din l-Art Helwa by the Government of Malta and funds raised from visitors are dedicated entirely to its maintenance and upkeep.

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