1.
Birgu
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Birgu, also known by its title Città Vittoriosa, is an old fortified city on the south side of the Grand Harbour in the South Eastern Region of Malta. The city occupies a promontory of land with Fort Saint Angelo at its head, Birgu is ideally situated for safe anchorage, and over time it has developed a very long history with maritime, mercantile and military activities. Birgu is a very old locality with its origins reaching back to medieval times, in fact, it served as the base of the Order of Saint John and de facto capital city of Malta from 1530 to 1571. Birgu is well known for its role in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. In the early 20th century, Birgu had a population of over 6000 people, over the years this decreased, and the population stood at 2,629 in March 2014. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, the Angevines, the Aragonese, after being driven out of Rhodes by the Ottoman Empire, the Order of Saint John were granted Malta as their new home. In 1526, the Order sent a commission made up of eight knights to Malta and they described Birgu as a small defenceless town with old houses in poor condition. When they arrived in 1530, they decided to make Birgu the capital city of Malta, since the capital, Mdina, was inland. The city was fortified in the 1530s and strengthened in the 1550s in preparation for an attack by the Ottoman Empire and this included the construction of the Castle of St Angelo, a large fortification separated from the city by a narrow channel, instead of the ancient Castrum Maris. The castle was connected to the city by means of a drawbridge, Birgu was the site of major battles between the Knights and the Ottoman Empire during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. After four months of defence by the Knights, the city was almost captured by the Ottoman army in August. Reinforcements from Sicily arrived a month later, and the siege was abandoned by the Ottomans, after this, a new capital city was built on Mount Sceberras, bearing the name Valletta. In 1571, the Knights transferred their convent and seat to the new capital, despite this, after the Siege, Birgu was given the title Città Vittoriosa, Italian for victorious city. After the taking of Malta by Napoleon in 1798, French forces were garrisoned in the city, soon after the Maltese rebelled and the Grand Harbour area was blockaded by Maltese rebels aided by Britain, Portugal and Naples. The French eventually capitulated in September 1800, and Malta became a British protectorate, the Royal Navys Mediterranean Fleet established its base in Birgu, and British forces remained stationed in Birgu until 1979. Birgu was heavily bombed during World War II due to its proximity to the Malta Dockyard, a number of historic buildings were destroyed, including the Birgu Clock Tower and the Auberge dAllemagne. In recent years, due to an agreement made by the Maltese Government with Sovereign Military Order of Malta and this agreement, which has a duration of 99 years, grants the Knights of Malta the exclusive use of Fort St Angelo in Birgu. Birgu is the location of several tourist attractions, the historic Vittoriosa Waterfront contains the former Palace of the General of the Galleys and the Order of St Johns treasury
2.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
3.
Defensive wall
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A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements, beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced. Existing ancient walls are almost always masonry structures, although brick, depending on the topography of the area surrounding the city or the settlement the wall is intended to protect, elements of the terrain may be incorporated in order to make the wall more effective. Walls may only be crossed by entering the city gate and are often supplemented with towers. Simpler defensive walls of earth or stone, thrown up around hillforts, ringworks, early castles, from very early history to modern times, walls have been a near necessity for every city. Uruk in ancient Sumer is one of the worlds oldest known walled cities, before that, the city of Jericho in what is now the West Bank had a wall surrounding it as early as the 8th millennium BC. The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples, some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified. By about 3500 B. C. hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain, many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. Mundigak in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks, babylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar, who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate. Exceptions were few — notably, ancient Sparta and ancient Rome did not have walls for a long time, initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar. In Central Europe, the Celts built large fortified settlements which the Romans called oppida, the fortifications were continuously expanded and improved. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, in classical era Greece, the city of Athens built a long set of parallel stone walls called the Long Walls that reached their guarded seaport at Piraeus. Large tempered earth walls were built in ancient China since the Shang Dynasty, although stone walls were built in China during the Warring States, mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until the Tang Dynasty. The large walls of Pingyao serve as one example, likewise, the famous walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor. The Romans fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls, the most famous of these are the largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln, apart from these, the early Middle Ages also saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century AD hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe and these cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces
4.
Government of Malta
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The Government of Malta is the executive branch of Malta. It is made up of the Cabinet and the Parliamentary Secretaries, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President of Malta, with the President making his or her decision based on the situation within the Maltese parliament. The Prime Minister is responsible for assigning departments of government to Permanent Secretaries, the President of Malta also appoints the rest of the cabinet with the assent of the Prime Minister of Malta. List of Maltese governments Cabinet of Malta
5.
Knights Hospitaller
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It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thoms order and it regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, in 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital, in 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist and it was served by the Order of Saint Benedict. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the orders members, in 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land, frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins deal only with the service of the sick, the order numbered three distinct classes of membership, the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV approved a military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour, they wore a red surcoat with a cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars, at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers, the property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies. As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England, as a result, buildings such as St Johns Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after four years of campaigning
6.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
7.
Invasion of Gozo (1551)
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The Invasion of Gozo took place in July 1551, and was accomplished by the Ottoman Empire against the island of Gozo, following an unsuccessful attempt to conquer nearby Malta on 18 July 1551. It was followed by a campaign with the Siege of Tripoli. The Commander of the Ottoman fleet was Sinan Pasha, accompanied by Sala Reis and Dragut Reis. The Ottomans initially landed on Malta, at Marsamxett, and a force of 10,000 men marched upon Birgu and Fort St Angelo, therefore, the Ottomans turned their attention to Mdina, looting and burning the villages on the way. Meanwhile, the Knights in Mdina, under the command of Fra Villeganion, asked the people living in the villages to seek refuge in the city and to help defend it. When the Ottomans arrived they discovered a large garrison defending the city so they decided against the plan of attacking the city since they did not want to fight a long siege, meanwhile, a relief fleet attacked the Ottoman ships anchored at Marsamxett. The Ottoman then decided to attack nearby Gozo, which was under the command of Governor Gelatian de Sessa, after a few days of bombardment, de Sessa attempted to negotiate with Sinan Pasha, however the latter rejected the terms. A few days later the Citadel capitulated, about 300 people escaped from the Citadel by climbing down its walls and hid from the Ottomans. The other 6,000 people, including Governor de Sessa, the Ottomans only spared a monk and forty elderly Gozitans. A street in the Citadel is named after him, and outside his house lies a plaque commemorating his death, since few Christians remained on Gozo, families from Malta were encouraged by the Order of Saint John to repopulate the island. However it took about 150 years for the population to reach pre-1551 levels, a few Gozitans managed to redeem themselves from slavery, such as the notable Reverend Lorenzo de Apapis, who returned to Gozo in 1554. The Grandmaster, Juan de Homedes, increased taxation and strengthened the coastal guards, following Strozzi and Pardos commission, Fort Saint Michael and Fort Saint Elmo were built to better defend the Grand Harbour. Bastions at Mdina and Birgu were strengthened, and the fortifications of Senglea were built, the failure to take all of the Maltese Islands was also one of the causes of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. Two other unsuccessful attacks were made on Gozo in 1613 and 1709, during the sacking of Gozo, the archives of the Università were destroyed by the Ottomans. The only surviving pre-1551 records relating to Gozo are a few documents in the Notarial Archives as well as records in the archives of Palermo. A re-enactment of was made by Grade 5 students of San Andrea School in 1997, the students played the roles of Turkish invaders, Knights, or Maltese peasants and filming was done on the schooner Charlotte Louise. Din l-Art Ħelwa produced an account of the invasion at Saint Michaels Bastion in the Citadel on 31 July 2009. This was centered on the legend of Don Bernardo de Opuo, in 2013 a memorial to the siege was set up at the gardens of Villa Rundle in Victoria, Gozo
8.
Great Siege of Malta
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The Great Siege of Malta took place in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire tried to invade the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights, with approximately 2,000 footsoldiers and 400 Maltese men, women and children, withstood the siege and this victory became one of the most celebrated events in sixteenth-century Europe. By the end of 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, had ejected the Knights from their base on Rhodes after the six-month Siege of Rhodes. From 1523 to 1530 the Order lacked a permanent home, charles also required the Knights to garrison Tripoli on the North African coast, which was in territory that the Barbary Corsairs, allies of the Ottomans, controlled. The Knights accepted the offer reluctantly, Malta was a small, desolate island, and for some time, many of the Knights clung to the dream of recapturing Rhodes. Nevertheless, the Order soon turned Malta into a naval base, in particular, the corsair Dragut was proving to be a major threat to the Christian nations of the central Mediterranean. Dragut and the Knights were continually at loggerheads, in 1551, Dragut and the Ottoman admiral Sinan decided to take Malta and invaded the island with a force of about 10,000 men. After only a few days, however, Dragut broke off the siege and moved to the island of Gozo. The Knights governor on Gozo, Gelatian de Sessa, having decided that resistance was futile, the corsairs sacked the town and took virtually the entire population of Gozo into captivity. Dragut and Sinan then sailed south to Tripoli, where they seized the Knights garrison there. They initially installed a leader, Aga Morat, as governor. The two new forts were built in the short period of six months in 1552. All three forts proved crucial during the Great Siege, the next several years were relatively calm, although the guerre de course, or running battle, between Muslims and Christians continued unabated. In 1557 the Knights elected Jean Parisot de Valette Grand Master of the Order and he continued his raids on non-Christian shipping, and his private vessels are known to have taken some 3,000 Muslim and Jewish slaves during his tenure as Grand Master. The Knights joined the expedition, which consisted of about 54 galleys and 14,000 men, the battle was a disaster for the Christians and it marked the high point of Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean. After Djerba there could be little doubt that the Turks would eventually attack Malta again, in August 1560, Jean de Valette sent an order to all the Orders priories that their knights prepare to return to Malta as soon as a citazione was issued. The Turks made an error in not attacking at once, while the Spanish fleet lay in ruins. Meanwhile, the Spaniards continued to prey on Turkish shipping, romegas exploits gave the Turks a casus belli, and by the end of 1564, Suleiman had resolved to wipe the Knights of Malta off the face of the earth
9.
Jean Parisot de Valette
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Fra Jean Parisot de Valette was a French nobleman and 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, from 21 August 1557 to his death in 1568. As a Knight Hospitaller, joining the order in the Langue de Provence, Grandmaster La Valette did not live to see Valletta completed as he died at the age of 74 and was followed by Grandmaster Pietro De Monte. Jean Parisots grandfather, Bernard de Valette, was a Knight and Kings Orderly, Jean Parisot was a distant cousin of Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, first Duke of Épernon. In his history of the Order of St. Little else is known about de Valettes early life, De Valette joined the Order when he was 20 years old in around 1514, and he never returned to France or his family estates from that day on. After the loss of Rhodes, the Order was granted the Maltese Islands, in 1537 Valette became Governor of Tripoli, where he tried to restore order within the vulnerable city. In 1538 he was imprisoned in the Gozo prison for 4 months after attacking a man, in 1541 Valette was involved in a naval battle against Abd-ur-Rahman Kust Aly, in which he was wounded and his galley, the San Giovanni, was captured. De Valette was taken as a slave for a year by Barbary pirates under the command of Turgut Reis but was later freed during an exchange of prisoners. In 1554 he was elected Captain General of the Orders galleys and this was a great honour to the Langue of Provence, as throughout most of the Orders history, the position of Grand Admiral was usually held by a Knight Grand Cross of the Italian Langue. In fact both sides had extremely talented sailors, De Valette was described by Abbe de Branthome as being a very handsome man, speaking several languages fluently including Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic and Turkish. In 1557, upon the death of Grand Master Claude de la Sengle, in 1560 he formed an alliance with the Habsburg Empire to reconquer Tripoli, but the expedition resulted in a Christian defeat at the Battle of Djerba. Despite this the Orders galleys were able to rescue several other Christian vessels, and later on in his reign, De Valette greatly strengthened the Orders navy. The battle saw the fall of Fort St. Elmo after about a month of fighting, but the Order managed to hold out in Birgu and Senglea until a relief force arrived. As a result of the Orders victory he gained much prestige in Europe and this has been attributed to his sense of modesty and his humility as a warrior monk. After the great siege, he commissioned the construction of the new city of Valletta in 1566, Valletta remains the Maltese capital to this day. De Valette suffered a stroke while praying in a chapel and died soon after on 21 August 1568, De Valette never saw the completed city of Valletta. His tomb can be found in the Crypt of the Conventual Church of the Order, documentary evidence has been found by Bonello that proves Barthélemy was legitimatized in 1568 by a decree of King Charles IX of France. Claims have also put forth that de Valette had at least another daughter, Isabella Guasconi. Isabella later married a Florentine gentleman Stefano Buonaccorsi, but he murdered her on 31 July 1568, after the murder Buonaccorsi escaped the islands with Isabellas wealth and was never heard from again
10.
Maltese language
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Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, the variety of Arabic that developed in Sicily and was later introduced to Malta, between the end of the ninth century and the end of the twelfth century. Maltese is a branch of Arabic because it has evolved independently of Literary Arabic into a standardized language over the past 800 years in a gradual process of Latinisation. About half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian, the original Semitic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, and typically includes words that denote basic ideas and the function words. Maltese has always written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages. The Norman conquest in 1090, followed by the expulsion of the Muslims permanently isolated the vernacular from its Arabic source, in contrast to Sicily, the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934. The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, the oldest known document in Maltese is Il Cantilena by Pietru Caxaro. It dates from the 15th century, the earliest known Maltese dictionary was a sixteenth-century manuscript entitled Maltese-Italiano, it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped from official use. In 1975, there were an estimated 371,000 Maltese speakers, today, the core vocabulary is Semitic, with large numbers of loanwords. Because of the Sicilian influence on Siculo Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and is most commonly described as a language with a number of loanwords. Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced, voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters, thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e. g. /niktbu/ is realised we write. Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and voiceless stops have no audible release, gemination is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel, some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters. The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters, /t/ and /d/ are usually dental, whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length, /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e. g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ newspaper and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ television. The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ is velar or glottal for some speakers, stress is generally on the penultimate syllable, unless some other syllable is heavy, or unless a stress-shifting suffix is added. When two syllables are heavy, the penultimate takes the stress, but otherwise the heavier syllable does. Many Classical Arabic consonants underwent mergers and modifications in Maltese, The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924, the first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese governments printing press
11.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
12.
Fort St. Angelo
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Fort Saint Angelo is a large bastioned fort in Birgu, Malta, located at the centre of the Grand Harbour. It was originally built in the period as a castle called the Castrum Maris or the Castello al Mare. The fort was garrisoned by the British from 1800 to 1979, the fort suffered considerable damage during World War II, but it was later restored. In 1998, the part of the fort was handed back to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Fort St. Angelo has been on Maltas tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, the date of its original construction is unknown. However, there are claims of prehistoric or classical buildings near the site, due to some large ashlar blocks, there is also the mentioning in Roman texts of a temple dedicated to Juno/Astarte, probably in the vicinity of the fort. Its probable start as a fortification is the medieval period. In fact, in 1220 Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II started to appoint his own Castellani for Malta who needed a place to live, the remains of a tower that may date back to the 12th century can be traced among the more recent works. The first mention of Castrum Maris is to be found in documents from the 1240s when Paulinus of Malta was the lord of the island and later when Giliberto Abate made a census of the islands. Another reference to the castle is that from the short Angevin rule where documents list it again as Castrum Maris and it seems also that by 1274, the castle already had two chapels which are still there today. From the same year also a detailed inventory of weapons. From 1283 the Maltese islands were under Aragonese rule and the fortification was used by Castellani who were there to safeguard the interests of the Aragonese crown. In fact the Castellans did not have any jurisdiction outside the ditch of the fort, the Knights made this their primary fortification and substantially reinforced and remodelled it, including the cutting of the dry ditch to make it a moat and the DHomedes Bastion built by 1536. These works transformed the fort into a gunpowder fortification, Fort St Angelo withstood the Turks during the Great Siege of Malta, during which it succeeded in tearing apart a sea attack by the Turks on Senglea on 15 August 1565. In the aftermath of siege, the Knights built the fortified city of Valletta on Mount Sciberras on the other side of the Grand Harbour. In 1644, Giovanni de’ Medici proposed a new fort be constructed on Orsi Point, and he drew up plans for the proposed fort, but they were never implemented. It was not until the 1690s that the fort underwent major repairs. As a result, one can see his coat of arms above the main gate of the fort
13.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
14.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
15.
Senglea
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Senglea, also known by its title Città Invicta, is a fortified city in the South Eastern Region of Malta. It is one of the Three Cities in the Grand Harbour area, the citys title Città Invicta was given because it managed to resist the Ottoman invasion at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. The name is Senglea since the grandmaster who built it, Claude de la Sengle, the island on which Senglea lies was joined by a land bridge to Cospicua during the time of the Knights of St. John and as a result, it became peninsular in shape. During the time of the Knights of St. John, Senglea was also used as a hunting area, in 1311 St. Julians church or chapel was founded in Isola. This was the first building to be constructed on what later became Senglea, on 8 May 1552 the foundation stone of Fort St. Michael was laid. Work on the fort, which was designed by Architect Pedro Pardo, was completed in 1553, construction of walled town Senglea took place during the following decade. The area, which had until the 1550s been known as Isola di San Giuliano or Isola di San Michele, was given city status by Grand Master Claude De La Sengle and was named after him. Senglea played an important role in the Siege of Malta in 1565, the city was given the title Civitas Invicta by Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette. In 1581 Senglea became a Parish dedicated to the Nativity of Our Lady, the donation of the statue of Our Lady, popularly known as Il-Bambina, is estimated to have occurred in 1618. Many inhabitants of the city were killed in an outbreak of plague which affected Malta in 1676, in 1789 Senglea was involved in the blockade against French forces, who were ousted from Malta in 1800. The city narrowly escaped being hit by another plague in 1813, the parish church was bestowed with the title of Basilica by Pope Benedict XV in 1921. Senglean-born Ignazio Panzavecchia was elected as the first Prime Minister of Malta in the first Self Government Constitution in the same year, because of his ecclesiastical status he decided not to take up the position. Following Panzavecchias refusal Joseph Howard was appointed as Prime Minister, during the Second World War Senglea suffered heavy bombardments which devastated most of the city and killed many of its citizens. On 16 January 1941 a blitz by the Luftwaffe on HMS Illustrious, docked at the nearby Corradino, caused 21 fatalities, king George VI visited the devastated city on 20 June 1943. The newly built Basilica was consecrated by Archbishop Sir Michael Gonzi on 24 August 1957, the following day the Basilica resumed its normal functions after almost 16 years and the statue of Marija Bambina was placed inside its new temple amongst huge celebrations. Pope John Paul II visited Senglea in May 1990, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Luftwaffe bombing of the city, a monument which honours the local victims of both World Wars was unveiled besides the Basilica on 5 September 1991. The first Local Council of Senglea was formed after an election on 3 March 1994, the first mayor of the city was Stephen Perici. The Italian city of Cassino became a city with Senglea in 2003
16.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
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Charles V was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556, through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four square kilometers and were the first to be described as the empire on which the sun never sets. Charles was the heir of three of Europes leading dynasties, the Houses of Valois-Burgundy, Habsburg, and Trastámara and he inherited the Burgundian Netherlands and the Franche-Comté as heir of the House of Valois-Burgundy. From his own dynasty, the Habsburgs, he inherited Austria and he was also elected to succeed his Habsburg grandfather, Maximilian I, as Holy Roman Emperor, a title held by the Habsburgs since 1440. Charles was the first king to rule Castile and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, the personal union, under Charles, of the Holy Roman Empire with the Spanish Empire resulted in the closest Europe would come to a universal monarchy since the death of Louis the Pious. France recovered and the wars continued for the remainder of Charless reign, enormously expensive, they led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, the Tercios. The struggle with the Ottoman Empire was fought in Hungary and the Mediterranean, after seizing most of eastern and central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans’ advance was halted at their failed Siege of Vienna in 1529. A lengthy war of attrition, conducted on his behalf by his younger brother Ferdinand, in the Mediterranean, although there were some successes, Charles was unable to prevent the Ottomans’ increasing naval dominance and the piratical activity of the Barbary Corsairs. Charles opposed the Reformation and in Germany he was in conflict with the Protestant Princes of the Schmalkaldic League who were motivated by religious and political opposition to him. Once the rebellions were quelled the essential Castilian and Burgundian territories remained mostly loyal to Charles throughout his rule, Charles’s Spanish dominions were the chief source of his power and wealth, and they became increasingly important as his reign progressed. In the Americas, Charles sanctioned the conquest by Castillian conquistadors of the Aztec, Castillian control was extended across much of South and Central America. The resulting vast expansion of territory and the flows of South American silver to Castile had profound long term effects on Spain. Charles was only 56 when he abdicated, but after 34 years of rule he was physically exhausted and sought the peace of a monastery. Upon Charles’s abdications, the Holy Roman Empire was inherited by his younger brother Ferdinand, the Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, was inherited by Charles’s son Philip II. The two empires would remain allies until the 18th century, Charles was born in 1500 as the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile in the Flemish city of Ghent, which was part of the Habsburg Netherlands. The culture and courtly life of the Burgundian Low Countries were an important influence in his early life and he was tutored by William de Croÿ, and also by Adrian of Utrecht. He also gained a decent command of German, though he never spoke it as well as French, a witticism sometimes attributed to Charles is, I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse
17.
Siege of Rhodes (1522)
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The first siege in 1480 had been unsuccessful. The Knights of St. John, or Knights Hospitallers, had captured Rhodes in the early 14th century after the loss of Acre, the last Crusader stronghold in Palestine in 1291. From Rhodes, they became a part of the trade in the Aegean sea. Since the previous siege the fortress had received many upgrades from the new school of trace italienne, gates were reduced in number, and the old battlement parapets were replaced with slanting ones suitable for artillery fights. A team of masons, labourers and slaves did the construction work, in 1521, Philippe Villiers de LIsle-Adam was elected Grand Master of the Order. The rest of Europe ignored his request for assistance, but some Venetian troops from Crete joined the knights, the city was protected by two and, in some places three, rings of stone walls and several large bastions. The defence of the walls and bastions was assigned in sections to the different Langues into which the knights had been organized since 1301, the harbour entrance was blocked by a heavy iron chain, behind which the Orders fleet was anchored. When the Turkish invasion force of 400 ships arrived on Rhodes on 26 June 1522, sultan Suleiman himself arrived with the army of 100,000 men on 28 July to take personal charge. The Turks blockaded the harbour and bombarded the town with artillery from the land side. They also sought to undermine the fortifications through tunnels and mines, twice more the Turks assaulted the breach that day, but each time the English brothers, aided by German brothers, held the gap. On 24 September, Mustafa Pasha ordered a new assault, aimed mainly at the bastions of Spain, England, Provence. After a day of fighting, during which the bastion of Spain changed hands twice. He sentenced Mustafa Pasha, his brother-in-law, to death for his failure to take the city, Suleiman offered the citizens peace, their lives and food if they surrendered, the alternative would be death or slavery if the Turks were compelled to take the city by force. Pressed by the townspeople, Villiers de LIsle-Adam agreed to negotiate, the bastion of Spain fell on 17 December. On 22 December, the representatives of the citys Latin and Greek inhabitants accepted Suleimans terms, the knights were given twelve days to leave the island and would be allowed to take with them their weapons and any valuables or religious icons they desired. Islanders who wished to leave could do so at any time within a three-year period, no church would be desecrated or turned into a mosque. Those remaining on the island would be free of Ottoman taxation for five years, on 1 January 1523, the remaining knights and soldiers marched out of the town, with banners flying, drums beating and in battle armour. They boarded the 50 ships which had made available to them and sailed to Crete
18.
Fortifications of Rhodes
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The portion of fortifications facing the harbour is instead composed of a crenellated wall. On the moles towers and defensive forts are found, the defence of different portions of fortifications was assigned to different Langue of Knights. Bastions and terrepleins still hold the name of the langue involved, the earthquake of 226 BC severely damaged the fortifications, but they were soon rebuilt. The Byzantines built a fortress on the highest part of the town, when the Knight Hospitallers conquered the island, the town was still wealthy but in decline. The richness of the island attracted the Ottomans from the nearby coast, the expansion of the walls was undertaken by Grand Master Antonio Fluvian de Riviere who allowed the town of Rhodes to reach the current area of about 42 hectares. The wall curtain was finished between 1457 and 1465, the Byzantine fortifications were demolished leaving just a portion of those of the old fort known at the time of Knights as Collachium. In 1440 the Mameluke sultan of Egypt tried without success to conquer the town sieging it for 40 days, in 1481 a destructive earthquake struck the island causing severe damages to the houses and the fortification and about 30,000 casualties. In the following years Grand Masters Pierre dAubusson, Emery dAmboise, Fabrizio del Carretto, for the purpose they called to Rhodes the best Italian military architects. Among them Matteo Gioeni, Basilio della Scuola, Gerolamo Bartolucci, the latter two were present in Rhodes during the final siege in 1522. The Bastion of Italy in which the Ottomans had opened a breach in 1480 was rebuilt with a chemin de ronde for the reverse fire of cannons on the nearby spans of wall. This bastion was named Bastion Del Carretto after the Grand Master, the gate of Saint John was closed and a pentagonal bastion with the same name was built on the western side of the walls to guard Gate dAmboise. After The Ottoman conquered Rhodes in 1522 they did not demolish the walls but repaired them, after their expulsion from Rhodes, the Hospitallers moved to the central Mediterranean island of Malta in 1530. They settled in the town of Birgu, and the first fortifications they built within the city were in a style to the fortifications of Rhodes. There are 11 gates to access the old city, some of them are ancient, some are modern. The ancient gate of Saint George was closed by the Grand Master dAubusson after the siege of 1480 and transformed into a bastion. Starting from the Palace of the Grand Master that is from North-West towards the South they are and it has a triple defensive belt with chemins de ronde, two round towers and covered entrance. Remains of the ancient studded wood doors are still visible, the Saint George bastion, pentagonal in shape, covered with its cannons the access through the gate. The Gate of St Athanasios was built between 1441 and 1442 and it is also known to locals as Saint Francis Gate since the church of Saint Francis of Assisi, built by the Italians, is just outside the gate
19.
Valletta
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Valletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. The historical city has a population of 6,444, while the area around it has a population of 393,938. Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe and the second southernmost capital of the European Union after Nicosia, Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John also known as Knights Hospitaller. The City of Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980, the official name given by the Order of Saint John was Humilissima Civitas Valletta—The Most Humble City of Valletta, or Città Umilissima in Italian. The building of a city on the Sciberras Peninsula, originally called Xaghriet Mewwija, had proposed by the Order of Saint John as early as 1524. Back then, the building on the peninsula was a small watchtower dedicated to Erasmus of Formia. In 1552, the watchtower was demolished and the larger Fort Saint Elmo was built in its place, in the Great Siege of 1565, Fort Saint Elmo fell to the Ottomans, but the Order eventually won the siege with the help of Sicilian reinforcements. The victorious Grand Master, Jean de Valette, immediately set out to build a new fortified city on the Sciberras Peninsula to fortify the Orders position in Malta, the city took his name and was called La Valletta. The Grand Master asked the European kings and princes for help, pope Pius V sent his military architect, Francesco Laparelli, to design the new city, while Philip II of Spain sent substantial monetary aid. The foundation stone of the city was laid by Grand Master de Valette on 28 March 1566 and he placed the first stone in what later became Our Lady of Victories Church. De Valette died from a stroke on 21 August 1568 at age 74, originally interred in the church of Our Lady of the Victories, his remains now rest in St. Johns Co-Cathedral among the tombs of other Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta. Francesco Laparelli was the principal designer and his plan departed from medieval Maltese architecture. He designed the new city on a grid plan. The streets were designed to be wide and straight, beginning centrally from the City Gate and ending at Fort Saint Elmo overlooking the Mediterranean and his assistant was the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, later oversaw the construction of the city himself after Laparellis death in 1570. The Ufficio delle Case regulated the building of the city as a planning authority, seven Auberges were built for the Orders Langues, and these were complete by the 1580s. An eighth Auberge, Auberge de Bavière, was added in the 18th century. During António Manoel de Vilhenas reign, a town began to form between the walls of Valletta and the Floriana Lines, and this evolved from a suburb of Valletta to Floriana, a town in its own right. In 1749, Muslim slaves plotted to kill Grandmaster Pinto and take over Valletta, in 1798, the Order left the islands and the French occupation of Malta began
20.
Fortifications of Valletta
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The fortifications of Valletta are a series of defensive walls and other fortifications which surround the capital city of Valletta, Malta. The first fortification to be built was Fort Saint Elmo in 1552, modifications were made throughout the following centuries, with the last major addition being Fort Lascaris which was completed in 1856. Most of the fortifications largely intact today. The fortifications were well known throughout Europe by the 17th century, in an 1878 book, Valletta was described as one of the best fortified in the world. Today, Vallettas fortifications are regarded as the most important of the fortifications of Malta, the construction of a fortified city on the Sciberras Peninsula was first proposed in 1524, when the Order of St. John sent a commission to inspect the Maltese Islands. Back then, the fortification on the peninsula was a militia watchtower built by the Aragonese in 1488. The tower was strengthened in 1533, but the city was not built since the Order focused on building the fortifications of Birgu. In 1551, an Ottoman force briefly attacked Malta, and then sacked Gozo and captured Tripoli, and as a result, in 1552, the Aragonese watchtower was demolished and Fort Saint Elmo was built in its place. The fort played a significant role in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565 and it eventually fell after a month of fierce fighting. The knights held out in Birgu and Senglea until a relief force arrived, after the Order emerged victorious from the siege, it received financial support from Europe, which was used to construct the new capital city on the Sciberras Peninsula. The Italian engineer Francesco Laparelli was sent by the Pope to design the citys fortifications, laparellis original design consisted of a bastioned enceinte, with nine cavaliers and a ditch. The city was to be designed along a plan, and was to include a naval arsenal. The citys first stone was laid by Grand Master Jean de Valette on 28 March 1566, the city walls were among the first structures to be built within the city, and were largely complete by the 1570s. Some changes were made to the design while the city was being constructed, Fort St. Elmo, which had been severely damaged in the 1565 siege, was also rebuilt and integrated in the city walls. The city of Valletta officially became the city of Malta. By the end of the 16th century, Valletta was the largest settlement in Malta, the northern end of the peninsula, including Fort St. Elmo, was also enclosed in a bastioned enceinte in the late 1680s to prevent a landing from the sea. Despite the modifications, it was realized that the walls of Valletta were not strong enough to withstand a long siege, in 1635, construction of the Floriana Lines commenced, enclosing Vallettas land front. The Floriana Lines were also modified until the 18th century, later on, the suburb of Floriana developed in the area between the Floriana Lines and the Valletta Land Front, and it is now a town in its own right
21.
Santa Margherita Lines
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The Santa Margherita Lines, also known as the Firenzuola Lines, are a line of fortifications in Cospicua, Malta. They were built in the 17th and 18th centuries to protect the front defences of the cities of Birgu. The Santa Margherita Lines have been on Maltas tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, the lines, also known as Santa Margherita Enceinte, were built to the designs of the Jesuit Cardinal Fra Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola. The foundation stone of the Santa Margherita Lines was laid on 30 December 1638 by Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris. The lines were designed by Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola, and were meant to protect the fronts of Birgu and Senglea. The lines were built on Santa Margherita Hill, known colloquially as il-Mandra, the hill is featured in the account of the Great Siege of 1565 by arquebusier Francesco Balbi di Corregio, who mentioned that a belvedere existed on it. The engineer of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Marquis di S. Angelo, has proceeded for the project in the building of the lines. When the three bastions were completed in 1645, construction work stopped due to a lack of funds. The lines remained unfinished for years, and they became known as Fort Santa Margarita or Fort Margarita. Construction of both the Santa Margherita and the Cottonera Lines resumed in 1715, the British modified the lines in the 1850s with the construction of Fort Verdala and St. Clements Retrenchment. The latter connected the Santa Margherita Lines with the Cottonera Lines, in the late 19th century, the western part of the lines was demolished to make way for an extension of the Malta Dockyard. The fortifications were included on the Antiquities List of 1925, most of the lines still exist today, but they are in a dilapidated state. Modern roads breach some of the bastions and curtain walls, the Santa Margherita Lines as completed in 1736 consisted of the following bastions and curtain walls, a stepped wing linking the Birgu land front to Firenzuola Bastion. It is breached by a modern road, Firenzuola Bastion – a small asymmetrical bastion. An unnamed curtain wall linking Firenzuola and Sta and it is breached by a modern road. Margherita Bastion – a small arrowhead type bastion, now incorporated into Fort Verdala, Verdala Curtain – a curtain wall linking St. Margherita and St. Helen Bastions. It contains Verdala Gate, and is incorporated into Fort Verdala, St. Helen Bastion – a large bastion forming the central part of the lines. Its upper part is incorporated into Fort Verdala, St. Helen Curtain – a curtain wall linking St. Helen and St. John Almoner Bastions
22.
Cottonera Lines
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The Cottonera Lines, also known as the Valperga Lines, are a line of fortifications in Cospicua and Birgu, Malta. They were built in the 17th and 18th centuries to form the outer defences of the Three Cities of Birgu, Senglea and they surrounded an earlier line of fortifications, known as the Santa Margherita Lines. In 1638, construction of Santa Margherita Lines began around the fronts of Birgu. Works stopped soon due to a lack of funds. The new line was named the Cottonera Lines after the reigning Grand Master and it was designed by the Italian engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga, who also modified the Floriana Lines and some other fortifications of the Grand Harbour. The Cottonera Lines were meant to accommodate up to 40,000 people, construction of the Cottonera Lines began in August 1670. The lines were called the most ambitious work of fortification ever undertaken by the Knights of St John in Malta, in the early 18th century, some efforts were made to complete both the Cottonera and the Santa Margherita Lines. Gunpowder magazines were built on St. James and St. Clement Bastions, the lines were eventually completed in the 1760s, but the ditch was left unfinished while the outworks and cavaliers were never built. During the French blockade of 1798–1800, the lines were held by the French, the Maltese insurgents who had rebelled against them built an entrenchment around the Cottonera Lines and the other fortifications in the harbour area. A number of batteries and lookout posts, such as Tal-Borg Battery, meanwhile, the French bombarded the Maltese in Żabbar. The British modified the lines in the 19th century with the construction of St. Clements Retrenchment, in the 1870s, Valperga Bastion and St. Pauls Curtain were demolished to make way for an extension of the Malta Dockyard. The fortifications were included on the Antiquities List of 1925, the Cottonera Lines consist of the following bastions and curtain walls, St. Laurence Demi-Bastion – a two-tiered demi-bastion linking the Cottonera Lines to the Birgu Land Front. Its lower part was damaged in World War II, and its upper part now houses a school, San Salvatore Curtain – curtain wall between St. Laurence Demi-Bastion and San Salvatore Bastion. It contains San Salvatore Gate and two modern breaches, San Salvatore Bastion – a pentagonal bastion retrenched with Fort San Salvatore, which was built in 1724. St. Louis Curtain – curtain wall between San Salvatore and St. Louis Bastions and it contains the blocked-up St. Louis Gate. St. Louis Bastion – a pentagonal bastion containing a World War II-era machine gun post, a 19th-century cemetery, St. James Curtain – curtain wall between St. Louis and St. James Bastions. It contains the blocked-up St. James Gate, St. James Bastion – a pentagonal bastion, containing a gunpowder magazine which was later converted into a chapel. It now forms part of the grounds of St. Edwards College, Notre Dame Curtain – curtain wall between St. James and Notre Dame Bastions
23.
Gunpowder magazine
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A gunpowder magazine, also known as a polverista, is a magazine designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was an explosive used in the military and for civil engineering. Most magazines were purely functional and tended to be in remote and they were one of three royal gunpowder factories, but the Ballincollig mills became disused after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Many buildings survive and, together with the canals, were incorporated into a regional park - Ballincollig Regional Park. The site contains a number of magazines, as well as Expense magazines. The No.2 magazine was built by the Board of Ordnance and is the oldest magazine and it is 29 foot long by 28 foot wide. The magazine is protected by banks on two sides, with doors at both ends. The No.1 magazine is newer, and was sometime after 1828. It is 80 foot long by 25 foot wide and has solid walls, there is a surviving Magazine at Camden Fort Meagher, part of the defences of Cork Harbour. In 2007 it was restored and converted into Irelands first crematorium outside Dublin, the Order of Saint John built a number of gunpowder magazines in Malta during their rule of the islands. Until the end of the century, echauguettes were used to store gunpowder. The Order also built a magazine in Valletta, but this exploded in 1634, after the explosion, a new magazine was built in Floriana, which was sparsely populated, to avoid another disaster. Various other magazines were built over the years, and their designs were influenced by French military architecture, the British, who took over Malta in 1800, also built a number of magazines on the islands. Gunpowder magazines in Malta include, Cittadella, A gunpowder magazine was built on St. John Demi-Bastion sometime between the 1620s and 1693, Two other magazines were built on St. Martin Cavalier and St. John Cavalier in 1701. The magazines at St. John Demi-Bastion and St. John Cavalier are still intact, Fort St. Angelo, A magazine was built within the fort sometime after 1690, possibly on the site of an older gunpowder factory. It still exists with some made by the British. Mdina, A magazine on De Redin Bastion was proposed in the 1720s, Fort Manoel, Two magazines were built in 1727–29 on St Helens Bastion and St Anthonys Bastion. The latter was demolished in 1872 to make way for gun emplacements, the British built smaller magazines in the fort as well
24.
Mdina
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Mdina, also known by its titles Città Vecchia or Città Notabile, is a fortified city in the Northern Region of Malta, which served as the islands capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city was founded as Maleth in around the 8th century BC by Phoenician settlers, ancient Melite was larger than present-day Mdina, and it was reduced to its present size during the Byzantine or Arab occupation of Malta. During the latter period, the city adopted its present name, the city remained the capital of Malta throughout the Middle Ages, until the arrival of the Order of St. John in 1530, when Birgu became the administrative centre of the island. Mdina experienced a period of decline over the centuries, although it saw a revival in the early 18th century. At this point, it acquired several Baroque features, although it did not lose its medieval character, Mdina is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and it is now one of the main tourist attractions in Malta. The plateau on which Mdina is built has been inhabited since prehistory, the Phoenicians colonized Malta in around the 8th century BC, and they founded the city of Maleth on this plateau. It was taken over by the Roman Republic in 218 BC, the Punic-Roman city was about three times the size of present-day Mdina, extending into a large part of modern Rabat. According to the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on Malta in 60 AD, he was greeted by Publius, the governor of Melite, and he cured his sick father. According to tradition, the population of Melite converted to Christianity, apart from unfounded interpretation of the bible, there is no proof of this and has been dismissed by historians who seek proof rather than faith alone. Very few remains of the Punic-Roman city survive today, the most significant are the ruins of the Domvs Romana, in which several well-preserved mosaics, statues and other remains were discovered. Remains of the podium of a Temple of Apollo, fragments of the city walls, at some point following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a retrenchment was built within the city, reducing it to its present size. This was done to make the citys perimeter more easily defensible, in 870, Byzantine Melite, which was ruled by governor Amros, was besieged by Aghlabids led by Halaf al-Hādim. He was killed in the fighting, and Sawāda Ibn Muḥammad was sent from Sicily to continue the following his death. The duration of the siege is unknown, but it lasted for some weeks or months. After Melite fell to the invaders, the inhabitants were massacred, marble from Melites churches was used to build the castle of Sousse. According to Al-Himyarī, Malta remained almost uninhabited until it was resettled in 1048 or 1049 by a Muslim community and their slaves, the layout of the new city was completely different to that of ancient Melite. Mdina still has features typical of a medina, a legacy of the period of Arab rule, the Byzantines besieged Medina in 1053–54, but were repelled by its defenders. A castle known as the Castellu di la Chitati was built on the southeast corner of the city near the main entrance, the population of Malta during the fifteenth century was about 10,000, with town life limited to Mdina, Birgu and the Gozo Citadel
25.
Cittadella (Gozo)
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The Cittadella, also known as the Citadel, the Castello or the Gran Castello, is a citadel in Victoria, on the island of Gozo in Malta. The area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, the Cittadella has been included on Maltas tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998. Although there is limited evidence of Neolithic remains in the Cittadella or Victoria, it is likely that the area has been inhabited since the Stone Age, given its size. Archaeological remains show that the site of the Cittadella was definitely inhabited during the Bronze Age, in the Tarxien Cemetery, the Victoria area remained the main settlement on Gozo throughout the Phoenician and Roman periods, and it became a settlement known as Gaulos or Glauconis Civitas. The city consisted of an acropolis on the site of the Cittadella, a temple dedicated to Juno is said to have stood on the site now occupied by the cathedral. A number of fragments from Gaulos have survived. A reused stone, with an inscription of the Roman period, is found at the entrance forming part of the gate. During the medieval period, the Roman town was abandoned, the first reference to the castrum of Gozo dates back to 1241. It was sacked by the Genoese in 1274, and a report on its fortifications was ordered two years later, at this point, one-third of Gozos population lived in or around the Cittadella, and the islands inhabitants were required to spend the night within the citadel. By the end of the 13th century, the Cittadella housed some Sicilian or Italian noblemen representing the Count of Malta, the Cittadella was called terra by the mid-14th century, and an administrative council known as the Università was founded in 1350. Over time, the Cittadella became too small for the growing population and this settlement was surrounded by a wall with three gates known as Putirjal, Bieb il-Għajn and Bieb il-Għarb. At this point Malta and Gozo were ruled by the Crown of Aragon, Malta and Gozo were handed over to the Order of St. John in 1530. At the time, the Cittadella was still a castle which provided refuge for the Gozitans during Ottoman or Barbary attacks. The largest attack on the Cittadella took place in July 1551, governor Gelatian de Sessa offered terms of surrender, but they were refused and the castle fell within a matter of days. It was sacked and most of the 6,000 Gozitans who took refuge there were taken as slaves, the attack left the castle as a ruin, and it was rebuilt soon afterwards although initially no efforts were made to modernize it. The Cittadella was not attacked during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, the Cittadella was attacked again by corsairs in 1583. In 1599, a reconstruction of the Cittadella begun to designs of the military engineer Giovanni Rinaldini. The southern walls of the city were rebuilt as a bastioned enceinte with a single bastion
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Kalkara
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Kalkara is a village in the South Eastern Region of Malta, with a population of 3,014 as of March 2014. The name is derived from the Latin word for lime, Kalkara forms part of the inner harbour area and occupies the area around Kalkara Creek. The town has its own Local Council and is bordered by the cities of Birgu and Żabbar, the village of Kalkara developed as a small fishing community around the sheltered inlet of Kalkara Creek. Some historians believe that the land today is known as Kalkara, was one of the first to be inhabited by the initial dwellers of Malta that came from nearby island of Sicily. Nevertheless, such theories cannot be proven and Kalkaras early history will remain largely unknown, the Christian era in Kalkara presumably began with the construction of the Palaeochristian hypogea in the zone known as Xagħra ta Santa Duminka situated in its parish boundary. In them, the first Christian cults began to be performed, the name given to this village, Kalkara, comes from the Latin word calce literally meaning lime, the reason for this being that in this locality lime-kilns were usually found. Thus, its motto is A Calce Nomen, the emblem is a green scutcheon, divided into two parts, half being blue representing the sea, and the other being gold with a burning flame. The population slowly increased and in the 19th and 20th century Kalkara developed into a small yet charming seaside resort while its waterfront, some of these houses, especially along the waterfront, are more elaborate than others and include three or four floors and also intricate stone carvings. This increase in population led to the elevation of Kalkara to an independent parish from Vittoriosa in 1897, although not strategically important in itself, Kalkara bore the brunt of World War II due to its close proximity to Cottonera and its Drydocks. The first parish church, which was located close to the present parish church, was destroyed during an air attack on 10 April 1942. Following the gaining of Independence by Malta in 1964, the country witnessed a period of high development and construction. Nevertheless, Kalkara still retains a charming and quiet atmosphere and constantly features in many paintings, Kalkara is located on the eastern coast of Malta and forms part of the inner harbour area of the Grand Harbour. It occupies the area around Kalkara Creek and extends to both sides around the creek. Rinella Bay, the sandy beach in the Grand Harbour, is found at the mouth of the Rinella valley. Kalkara is one of the few localities within the Grand Harbour area that still has large open spaces that naturally divide it from other towns. The town is bordered by the cities of Birgu and Żabbar, Band Clubs Circolo San Giuseppe Filarmonika Sagra Familja A. D1897 St. Joseph Band Club A. D. The given reason was that through being demolished, it would not provide any shelter for the invading Turks, in 1580, Claudio Abela and Davidde Burlò received permission from the Grand Master La Cassiere to build a chapel in the same site where the mentioned chapel stood. In this chapel, bailiff Fra Giovanni Bichi, nephew of Pope Alexander VII, was buried in 1676 after having died due to the plague, meanwhile, in 1680 this chapel was again rebuilt, this time to the design of the Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà
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Castle
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A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. Usage of the term has varied over time and has applied to structures as diverse as hill forts. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with different features, although some, such as curtain walls. A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures served as centres of administration. Many castles were built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire, many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castles firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape, while castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning fortified place. The Old English castel, Old French castel or chastel, French château, Spanish castillo, Italian castello, the word castle was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of building, which was then new to England. In its simplest terms, the definition of a castle accepted amongst academics is a fortified residence. Feudalism was the link between a lord and his vassal where, in return for service and the expectation of loyalty. Castles served a range of purposes, the most important of which were military, administrative, as well as defensive structures, castles were also offensive tools which could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory
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Carlos de Grunenbergh
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Carlos de Grunenbergh, also known as Carlo Grunenberg, was a Flemish architect and military engineer active in the late 17th century. He mainly designed fortifications in Sicily and Malta and he was also a member of the Order of Saint John. In the mid-17th century, Grunenbergh worked in Spain with his brother Ferdinand, in 1681, Grunenbergh was invited to Malta by Gregorio Carafa, the Grand Master of the Order of Saint John. He made a number of improvements and modifications to the islands fortifications, the improvements included the addition of batteries to the fortifications of Valletta and Senglea, and the construction of the Carafa Enceinte around Fort Saint Elmo. Grunenbergh came to Malta again in 1687, and designed and paid for the construction of batteries, to honour his contribution, he was made a Knight of Devotion of the Order of St. John. His coat of arms and a commemorative inscription are also located at the main gate. Grunenbergh directed the reconstruction of various fortifications in Sicily following the earthquake of 1693, including the walls of Augusta. He also dealt with the reconstruction of the city of Catania. Only one portrait of Grunenbergh is known and it is sometimes attributed to Mattia Preti, and it is now in a private collection
29.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
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Hornwork
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A hornwork is an element of the Italian Bastion system of fortification. Its face is flanked with a pair of demi-bastions, distinguish from a crownwork, which contains a full bastion at the center
31.
Antoine de Paule
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Fra Antoine de Paule was elected as the 56th Grand Master of the Order of Malta on 10 March 1623 and he died in Malta on 9 June 1636. He died 85 years old after a long illness and his epitaph notes him as a leader who both was loved and loved his subjects. It is said that he made more available to the Order. He also made an out of fortifying the ramparts that the Order had set up for defense. Antoine de Paule sent a delegate to the Vatican, who dealt with these scrupulous rumors, the town of Paola is named after the grandmaster, after he laid its foundation stone in 1626. Coins of Grandmaster Antoine de Paule
32.
Barracks
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A barrack or barracks is a building or group of buildings built to house soldiers. The word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes, the main object of barracks is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training, and esprit de corps. They have been called discipline factories for soldiers, Early barracks such as those of the Roman Praetorian Guard were built to maintain elite forces. There are a number of remains of Roman army barracks in frontier forts such as Vercovicium, from these and from contemporary Roman sources we can see that the basics of life in a military camp have remained constant for thousands of years. Large, permanent barracks were developed in the 18th century by the two dominant states of the period, France the caserne and Spain the cuartel. The English term ‘barrack’, on the hand, derives from the Spanish word for a temporary shelter erected by soldiers on campaign. Early barracks were multi-story blocks, often grouped in a quadrangle around a courtyard or parade ground, a good example is Berwick Barracks, which was among the first in England to be purpose-built and begun in 1717 to the design of the distinguished architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. The pavilion plan concept of design was influential in barrack planning after the Crimean War. The first large-scale training camps were built in the Kingdom of France, the British Army built Aldershot camps from 1854. By the First World War, infantry, artillery, and cavalry regiments had separate barracks and these were inadequate for the enormous armies mobilized after 1914. Hut camps were developed using variations of the eponymous Nissen hut, in many military forces, NCOs and enlisted personnel will frequently be housed in barracks for service or training. Junior enlisted and sometimes junior NCOs will often receive less space and may be housed in bays, while senior NCOs, the term Garrison town is a common expression for any town that has military barracks, i. e. a permanent military presence nearby. Barracks blockhouses were used to house troops in forts in Upper Canada, the Stone Frigate, completed in 1820, served as barracks briefly in 1837–38, and was refitted as a dormitory and classrooms to house the Royal Military College of Canada by 1876. The Stone frigate is a stone building originally designed to hold gear. The majority of the Portuguese Army bases is referred as a quartel, in a barracks, each of the dormitory buildings is referred as a caserna. Most of them are regimental barracks, constituting the fixed component of the Army system of forces and being responsible for the training, sustenance, in addition to the regimental administrative, logistic and training bodies, each barracks can lodge one or more operational units. Many of the Portuguese regimental barracks are of the CANIFA model, the CANIFA barracks were designed to lodge 1,000 or more soldiers. Nevertheless, some soldiers lodgings were built in Britain at this time, the first recorded use of the word barracks in this context was for the Irish Barracks, built in the precinct of the Tower of London in 1669
33.
Caponier
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A caponier is a type of fortification structure. The word originates from the French word caponnière, originally the term referred to a covered passageway that traversed the ditch between the walls of a fortress and a ravelin outside the wall. This was more simply a passage however as fire from this point could sweep the ditch between the ravelin and the curtain wall and inflict devastating damage on any attempt to storm the wall. Thus the passageway was equipped with ports and cannon ports that fired along the ditch. While fortifications were evolving to the polygonal style, the term was used to describe the blockhouses set in the corners of the ditch that provide the same function in that style of fort. The roof is vulnerable to plunging fire, and is thus usually exceedingly thick and curved to deflect falling shells, or covered with a thick layer of earth. The caponier is usually equipped with a step and rifle ports to allow troops to fire along the ditch. To clear the smoke and fumes from the firing the roof of the caponier is often provided with ventilation ports, the length of the straight sections of the ditch is chosen so that it can be covered by fire from a single caponier. Caponiers are often wedge shaped so that they can fire down both angles of the ditch, an alternative to the caponier is a counterscarp battery, dug into the outer face of the corner of the ditch, giving a similar field of fire. Again reached by a tunnel from within the fort, it not have the vulnerable roof that the caponier has. Both structures may be found in the same fort
34.
Baroque architecture
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It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, the new style manifested itself in particular in the context of the new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits who aimed to improve popular piety. The architecture of the High Roman Baroque can be assigned to the reigns of Urban VIII, Innocent X and Alexander VII. Dissemination of Baroque architecture to the south of Italy resulted in variations such as Sicilian Baroque architecture or that of Naples. To the north, the Theatine architect Camillo-Guarino Guarini, Bernardo Vittone and Sicilian born Filippo Juvarra contributed Baroque buildings to the city of Turin and the Piedmont region. A synthesis of Bernini, Borromini and Cortona’s architecture can be seen in the late Baroque architecture of northern Europe which paved the way for the more decorative Rococo style. During the 17th century, Baroque architecture spread through Europe and Latin America, michelangelos late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peters Basilica, may be considered precursors to Baroque architecture. Colonialism required the development of centralized and powerful governments with Spain and France, the initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards bankrupted them in the 16th century, recovering only slowly in the following century. While this was good for the industries and the arts, the new wealth created an inflation. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous churches as for its vagabonds, one of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù, was the church of Santa Susanna, designed by Carlo Maderno. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, central massing, there is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, but it still maintains rigor. These concerns are more evident in his reworking of Santa Maria della Pace. Probably the most well known example of such an approach is Saint Peters Square, the piazza, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is formed principally by two colonnades of free standing columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk. Berninis own favourite design was his church of SantAndrea al Quirinale decorated with polychome marbles. His secular architecture included the Palazzo Barberini based on plans by Maderno, Berninis rival, the architect Francesco Borromini, produced designs that deviated dramatically from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance. His building plans were based on geometric figures, his architectural forms were unusual and inventive. Borrominis architectural spaces seem to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the style of Michelangelo. A later work, the church of SantIvo alla Sapienza, displays the same playful inventiveness and antipathy to the flat surface, following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome
35.
Times of Malta
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The Times of Malta is Maltas top media house. Founded in 1935, by Lord and Lady Strickland and Lord Stricklands daughter Mabel and it has the widest circulation and is seen as the daily newspaper of reference of the Maltese press. The newspaper and its website timesofmalta. com are known to be the most influential media sources in Malta. It is an independent media organisation owned by the Strickland Foundation, the Sunday edition also puts strong emphasis on the social and cultural arena in Malta. Locally, Timesofmalta. com is by far the most accessed website in Malta overall, the history of The Times of Malta is linked with that of its publishing house, Allied Newspapers Limited. This institution has a history going back to the 1920s, when it pioneered journalism and it all started with the publication, by Gerald Strickland, of Maltas first evening newspaper in Maltese, Il-Progress. This was a daily with its own printing offices in what was then 10A, Strada Reale. The name Progress is retained to this day by the sister of Allied Newspapers Limited. Bilingual journalism, Maltese and English, was introduced in Malta with the publication, on 3 February 1922, the Times of Malta and Il-Progress lasted till 1 March 1929. The English supplement then became The Times of Malta Weekly, the Maltese side was named Ix-Xemx, later changed to Id-Dehen and later still to Il-Berqa, first published on 29 January 1932. Il-Berqa ceased publication on 30 November 1968, in February 1931, Progress Press moved from Strada Reale to 341, St Paul Street, Valletta, the present site of Allied Newspapers Limited, also known as Strickland House. As readership of the English supplement to Il-Progress soared, Lord Strickland was quick to see there was room for an English daily. This would happen so long as the new publication achieved and maintained a standard of public service in information. On 2 September 1935, Mabel Strickland, who was a member of Allied Malta Newspapers Limited and formed part of the first Board of Directors. She also edited The Sunday Times of Malta from 1935 to 1950 when she was succeeded by the late George Sammut who retired in 1966, anthony Montanaro was the next editor. He retired on 1 March 1991 and succeeded by Laurence Grech, on 6 August 1960, the 25th anniversary of The Times of Malta, Strickland wrote that The Times of Malta, whilst originally a party paper, had become a national newspaper. The paper won for itself a reputation for objective reporting whilst upholding its own strongly held editorial opinion, Stricklands editorship covered the difficult years of World War II. Nevertheless, none of the newspapers forming part of the Group ever missed an issue in spite of continuous bombing, the building was bombed twice, receiving a direct hit on 7 April 1942, when sixteen rooms were demolished but sparing the printing machines
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Television Malta
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Television Malta is a terrestrial television network in Malta operated by the national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services. TVM broadcasts a mix of news, sport, entertainment, magazine programming and it is funded through a government grant and commercial advertising. The majority of programmes broadcast on TVM are produced externally of PBS, PBS publishes details of the types of programmes it wishes to broadcast on TVM and production companies provide PBS with a detailed report of their proposal for the programme. Most programmes are broadcast in Maltese, however the Maltese speak both Maltese and English so English also features, mainly in BBC and ITV titles, sunday evenings are dedicated to classic British comedy, and English language films are shown on Saturday evenings. The English language feed of Euronews is also broadcast daily, in October 2011, PBS announced another overhaul of the TVM brand, to mark 50 years since the establishment of the Malta Television Service in 2012. The new branding pays homage to previous TVM identities, and makes use of the Maltese cross, in March 2012, PBS started its trial transmissions on the new channel TVM2, which has replaced Education 22. The broadcast time starts at around 15,00 and finishes at around 12, on 8 March 2012, PBS also started trials of TVM HD, the first HD channel from Malta. The channel is available to all those who have Melita Netbox or iBox, GO, Melitas main rival in the cable television industry on the Maltese Islands included the channel later in their schedule and also exclusively TVM2 HD. A new programme schedule was announced, including a number of news bulletins. For several years including the 2015/2016 period TVM had the highest number of viewers compared to the rest of Maltese television stations put together, some of the current hits are Xarabank, Disset, Strada Stretta, Skjetti and news broadcasting. Statistics show that more than a quarter of the population of Malta watch these on a regular basis, TVM airs TVAM, a breakfast television program focused on news and current affairs, weekday mornings from 07,00 to 08,30. TVMs main newscast L-aħbarijiet ta Telavixin Malta is aired weeknights from 20,00 to 20,50, since 2012, a nightly newscast in Maltese Sign Language has aired on sister network TVM2. TVM previously carried bulletins in English from Euronews and Britains ITN
