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fort st angelo, panorama, panoramic views, qtvr, 360° virtual tour, birgu, guva, |
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Fort St. Angelo is the jewel in the crown of Malta's rich military heritage. It stands majestically at the tip of the promontory of Cittą Vittoriosa or Birgu, as it is popularily known, dominating the Three Cities on the South Eastern Side of the Grand Harbour. The families of De Guevara and De Nava were associated with the castle for many years and the latter family had to hand over the castle to the Order of St. John, when the Knights landed on our shores in 1530.
Soon after their arrival in Malta the Knights set about strengthening the then half-ruined Castle of St Angelo and repairing the fort's defences. The church of St Anne as well as the Castellan's house, both in the fort, were restored and remodelled by the Order's Ingeniere e Soprastante dell' Opere, the Portugese Frą Diego Perez di Malfriere. The castle soon became a veritable fortress, and, thirty five years later, in 1565, was to repulse a formidable Turkish Armada which besieged the island for three months. It was the headquarters of Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette who led the local force of some six hundred Knights and a few thousand men-at-arms against the repeated onslaught of the Muslim invaders. The epic resistance of the defenders of the Fort during the Great Siege, are the archetype of all that symbolizes the character and determination of the Knights of St John and the Maltese.
(Panorama sizes: from 800kb to 2.34Mb. QuickTime® viewer is required. The panoramas may take time to download on slower systems). The fort underwent various changes during the rule of the Order of St John and the other defence works were concluded by the Spanish military engineer Carlos de Grunenburgh, in about 1689. This outline (the dark brown line in the image map above) still survives today. In 1912 the British Royal Navy moved into Fort St Angelo and the fort was turned into a naval headquarters and rechristened HMS St Angelo. During the Second World War the Fort was extensively damaged by air attack and between 1940 and 1943 it suffered sixty-nine direct hits. It continued to be used as a base ship for the Mediterranean until the British Services finally left Malta in March 1979. In the historical agreement reached with the Maltese Government in 1998, the Order of St. John, was granted the right to occupy the upper part of the Fort (the green area in the map), comprising the Magistral Palace and St. Anne's Chapel. Intensive restoration works of these areas are being carried out.
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The Church of St Anne in Fort St Angelo
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The ‘Guva' in Fort St Angelo
The ‘Guva’, or underground cell, was the Order’s
most severe place of confinement for convicted knights. It principally served as a
place of punishment but occasionally also housed knights awaiting trial. It
consists of a bell shaped hole excavated in the ground-rock, without steps, from
which it was virtually impossible to escape.
Click the images below for detailed pictures:
File sizes: 273kB 404kb 373kb |
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EU Celebrations
Fort St Angelo was the centre of attraction in a spectacular display of lights, music and fireworks which was transmitted live on television to millions of viewers, to celebrate Malta's entry into the European Union on the 1st May 2004.
The pictures below show some of the different 'faces' of the fort during the impressive display.
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Acknowledgements
The panoramas were produced with the kind permission of Frą John E. Critien, Grand Cross of Justice, Knight Resident at Fort St Angelo.
Many thanks to: Comm Joseph C Sammut CM, KM Mr John Testa BA, Dip Prob Serv |
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| The Maltese Association of SMOM |
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Produced by: Martin Micallef E-mail: © 5/2004 |
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This
15th century Chapel of St Anne, in the precincts of Fort St Angelo, is where the
Knights
first worshipped on their arrival in Malta. It is
said that the original chapel was built by the De
Nava family one hundred years before the coming of the Knights in
1530. The histographer of the Order Iacomo Bosio, writing in
1594, says
that the present chapel was built on the site of the original one. Leonard
Mahoney, a leading historian of architecture in Malta describes the present
chapel thus: “The church consists of an entrance bay, a square central section
of four quadripartite-vaulted bays, another quadripartite-vaulted bay in line
with the entrance and, finally a small bay which seems to have supported a
half-dome. The four middle bays are sustained by a central column composed of
red granite known as syenite and may have formed part of a temple.”
