Garzes Tower

Garzes Tower
Torri Garzes
Mġarr, Gozo
Map of Mġarr Harbour in the mid-18th century, showing Garzes Tower, Mġarr Battery and a proposed bastioned enceinte and redoubt that were never built
Coordinates	36°1′37.7″N 14°17′51.7″E / 36.027139°N 14.297694°E
Type	Coastal watchtower
Site history
Built	1605–1607
Built by	Order of Saint John
Materials	Limestone
Fate	Demolished, 1848

Garzes Tower (Maltese: Torri Garzes), also known as Saint Martin's Tower (Maltese: Torri ta' San Martin),^[1] Torre Garzes and Torre della Garza, was a watchtower built in Mġarr, Gozo by the Order of Saint John in 1605. It was named after Martin Garzez, the Grand Master who financed its construction, even though it was eventually built after his death. The tower was demolished in the 19th century.

It was built to the design of Vittorio Cassar.^[2] A number a coastal towers, built by Grandmaster Wignacourt, are traditionally attributed to Cassar and based on the Garzes tower. However this is probably based on speculations It is likely that Cassar's design of Garzes Tower was used, and adequately modified, to built the other towers due to their similarity in their military architecture.^[2]

Background

In the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, Gozo was prone to attacks by Barbary corsairs, along with most of Malta and other coastal areas in the Mediterranean and Europe. The harbour of Mġarr was commonly used by pirates to replenish with water and plunder the surrounding area. The worst attack occurred in July 1551, when Ottoman forces aided by corsairs tried to take over Malta but failed so they landed in Gozo, besieged the Cittadela and took almost the entire population of about 5000 to 6000 people as slaves (with the exception of a monk, some 40 elderly Gozitans and about 300 who managed to escape and hide). The slaves were taken aboard Ottoman ships from Mġarr Harbour itself.

Before this attack, there had already been proposals to build a tower to guard Mġarr Harbour and the Gozo Channel. In 1418, the people made a petition to build such a tower but nothing materialized. In 1599, a report was made about the defence of Gozo, and the military engineer Giovanni Rinaldini made it clear that a tower was necessary in that area to prevent any future attacks. The Grand Master at that time, Martin Garzez, realized this so he decided to finance the building of a tower himself. He allocated 12,000 scudi for the building of the tower, but he died in 1601 before construction even began.

The tower

View of Mġarr from the sea, with the site of Garzes Tower on the right

Construction of the tower began four years after the Grand Master died, in 1605. It was still under construction in 1607. It was built on a promontory, between Wied il-Kbir and Wied Biljun. The tower had a number of guns mounted on its roof which had equidistant embrasures along each of its sides.

In the mid-18th century, a bastioned enceinte was proposed around the tower, but it was never built. Eventually, Fort Chambray was built on the opposite side of Mġarr.^[3]

The tower had a small chapel dedicated to St Catherine of Siena and later St Martin that was intended for use by the four militia members in the tower but was also open to the public. It became an unofficial parish church for the people of the nearby villages.^[4]

After 243 years, the tower was demolished in 1848. Its masonry was used to build the bridge linking Mġarr to Nadur. The Mġarr Hotel was built over the site of the tower, but it has since closed down.^[5]

Legacy

Although the tower no longer exists, it still has an important place in Malta's history. This was the first coastal watchtower built by the Order. Garzes' successor, Alof de Wignacourt, later built a series of large watchtowers or small forts that are known as the Wignacourt towers. Other Grand Masters built smaller watchtowers such as the Lascaris and De Redin towers.

Since Garzes Tower has been demolished, the oldest tower still standing in Malta is the Wignacourt Tower in St. Paul's Bay, which was built in 1610. The oldest tower on Gozo is the Xlendi Tower that was built in 1650 (a tower in Marsalforn had also been built in 1616 but it collapsed in around 1715).

References

1. Cassar Pullicino, Joseph (October–December 1949). "The Order of St. John in Maltese folk-memory" (PDF). Scientia. 15 (4): 159. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2016.
2. "Vittorio Cassar" (PDF): 259–160.
3. Spiteri, Stephen C. (2013). "In Defence of the Coast (I) - The Bastioned Towers". Arx - International Journal of Military Architecture and Fortification (3). Retrieved 20 April 2015.
4. Scerri, John. "Ghajnsielem - including Mgarr". malta-canada.com. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
5. "Coastal Towers". vassallohistory.wordpress.com. Retrieved 19 July 2014.