The Archives Awareness Week is currently being held in Gozo for the fourth consecutive year.
Tomorrow, Thursday the 30th of October, at 11.00 am, Giovanna Debono, Minister for Gozo, will inaugurate an exhibition, ‘The Coastal Defences of Gozo’, from the deposits at the national archives.
The exhibition is housed within the premises of the National Archives, Gozo Section, in Vajringa Street, Victoria and consists of twenty interesting original documents and maps and sixteen photos related to the coastal defences of Gozo. These were selected from several of the twenty-six entities whose records are deposited at the Archives.
The exhibition will run up to Saturday, the 15th of November and is open Monday to Saturday from 7.30am to 1.00pm and on Wednesdays, up to 6.00pm. Entrance to the exhibition is free.
The Coastal Defences of Gozo
Gozo, the second largest island of the Maltese archipelago, covers an area of 67 square kilometres. It has a maximum length of 14.5 kilometres, and a width of 7.2 kilometres, and a coastline of some 45 kilometres (almost 29 miles).
The island’s coastline is curious indeed. It is practically high all round offering the island a string of natural fortifications that shielded the islanders from their enemies many times during the millennia. Gozo is however quite vulnerability from its few inlets and, for this reason, it has been attacked and invaded by seafarers from time immemorial.
The Gozitans shielded themselves from the enemy by raising fortifications. The first protection walls around the hill that is now the Gozo Citadel go back to the Bronze Age, and precisely to the Borg in-Nadur phase of the history of Malta, that is to around 1500 bc. The Citadel was destined to remain the bulwark of the people of Gozo throughout history.
Since ancient times, the regional government of the island must have manned a number of lookout posts to ward off intruders from the vulnerable creeks. The islanders could be forewarned of intruders and organize a counter-attack or seek refuge within the fortifications.
Gozo had several lookout posts before the building of the coastal watchtowers. The wardija, as the lookpost is called in Maltese, consisted of a small room that afforded a good view for observation and from where a guard could get some cover rain or shine. Two very important posts stood above Mgarr harbour, overlooking the Gozo-Malta channel. The first is referred to as the Mgarr Wardija, the second as the Ras it-Tafal Wardija. The first stood above the area known as iz-Zewwieqa and was eventually replaced by a watchtower. The second occupied a corner of the site upon which Fort Chambray was eventually built. They are first documented in 1595.
As early as 1418, the Universitas, the regional administration of Gozo, petitioned King Alfonso V of Sicily and Malta to authorise the building of a tower on the island of Comino. They explained how the passage between Gozo and Malta was wrought with danger due to the many corsairs seeking refuge in the caves and coves on that island. The petition was granted, but there were no funds for the project.
In a report of 1599 on Gozo’s defence problems, Giovanni Rinaldini, a military engineer of Ancona, emphasized inter alia the utmost necessity of a tower to guard the Gozo-Malta channel. Aware of its urgency, Grand Master Martin Garzes (1595-1601) decided to finance its building out of his own purse. Its construction was concluded in 1607 and was spontaneously called Torre Garza after the late Grand Master. It was the first coastal tower built on the island of Gozo. More were raised in the following decades. The Comino tower was built in 1618.
The exhibition highlights this aspect of the history of Gozo. It is divided into two main sections. The first consists of twenty documents related to coastal defences ranging from 1595 to 1804 preserved at the NAG. The second consists of photographs of the major coastal fortifications of Gozo: the towers, the batteries, the redoubts, the underwater obstruction, and the fougasses.
The exhibition is sponsored by HSBC.
A souvenir postcard (No 2) – available at the National Archives, Gozo Section – has been issued for the occasion.