Fort San Salvatore: An Inner Defensive Work in the Cottonera Lines
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Malta
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Knights Hospitaller
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page5 sections
History
Fort San Salvatore is an eighteenth-century limestone fort in Birgu, Malta, created in 1724 when French military engineers converted San Salvatore Bastion into an inner defensive work for the Order of Saint John, the religious and military order that governed Malta. As a retrenched fort, meaning an inner defensive work within a larger fortification, it formed part of the Cottonera Lines, Malta’s major defensive system.
Construction of the Cottonera Lines
Work on the Cottonera Lines began in 1670 but stopped in 1680 because of a shortage of funds. The main bastioned circuit had been completed, while raised gun platforms, outworks, the ditch, sloping approach and protected path alongside the outer defences remained unfinished. Attempts to continue the work took place in the early eighteenth century, but the lines were still incomplete when San Salvatore Bastion was converted into a fort.
British use and wartime events
British forces used the fort during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From 1824, it housed Turkish prisoners captured during the Greek War of Independence, the Greek revolt against Ottoman rule. During the First World War, German prisoners of war were held there.
From May to July 1940, the fort served as an internment site for Maltese people suspected of supporting Italian irredentism, a movement seeking to unite territories considered Italian with Italy. Those held there included Enrico Mizzi, who later became prime minister. Forty-three internees were exiled to Uganda and permitted to return in 1945. During the Second World War, the fort contained a kerosene depot. Italian aircraft bombed it on 25 October 1941, causing the depot to explode.
Lease and private ownership
In 1958, Prime Minister Dom Mintoff leased the fort to Prestressed Concrete Limited, a company owned by his brother Raymond Mintoff, for £100 every six months. In 1982, the long-term right to use the property was bought out for 2,000 Maltese liri, Malta’s currency before the euro, and the fort became private property.
Remains
The fort occupies San Salvatore Bastion, the northernmost bastion of the Cottonera Lines and the one nearest Birgu. Its area is about 8,500 square metres. Built of limestone, its layout comprises two half-bastions linked by a curtain wall, the defensive wall connecting fortifications. A ditch encloses the works, and an open parade ground for troop assembly and drill lies at the centre. The fort survives intact, although it is in a dilapidated condition.
