Category: Heritage

When the Ottomans invaded the Maltese islands in 1565, they found refuge on the hill of Our Saviour in Kalkara from where they attacked the Knights and Maltese in Vittoriosa. This battle is known as the Great Siege of Malta. Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette ordered the demolition of the old Church of […]

Villa Bighi was designed by Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà. It was built in 1675 by Fra Giovanni Bichi, the grandson of Pope Alexander VII. A year later, the unfinished palace was inherited by his nephew Fra Mario Bichi, due to his sudden death. The Villa was abandoned during the French blockade. In 1827 King George […]

Prior to 1487 a Church dedicated to Our Saviour was built on the Rinella peninsula. Pastoral visits reveal the command by Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette for its demolition during the Great Siege of 1565 so as not to serve as shield for the Ottoman army. In 1580 the Church was rebuilt by […]

Fort Rinella in Kalkara and Fort Cambridge in Sliema were built by the British in 1886 to guard the naval base and dockyard in Malta. This was done in reponse to the arming of two Italian warships Duilio and Dandalo which were equipped with 100-ton cannons built by Sir George William Armstrong. The Armstrong cannon […]

Albeit construction of the Cottonera Lines started in 1670, it was only in 1724 that part of Our Saviour Bastion, named after the hill bearing the same name, was converted into a fort by French military engineers, upon advice by Charles François de Mondion and René Jacob de Tigné. The main purpose was to defend […]