Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna (Heritage Malta Foundation) will be holding a special heritage day at Fort Rinella on Sunday the 1st of February, between 10.00am and 4.00pm to mark the launch of a new audio-visual production illustrating the history of the fort and its monster 100-ton gun. This was announced by the Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment, Tonio Fenech, during a press conference held at the Fort.

The Minister highlighted the important work in the field of heritage conservation carried out by Heritage Malta Foundation, which is a voluntary non-governmental organisation active in the field of heritage preservation. It looks after several historic buildings and sites in Malta, all of which are open to the public. Consequently, Minister Fenech expressed his satisfaction to be able to support similar projects through the National Lotteries Good Causes Fund. FWA benefited €70,000 from this fund.

The production, which was made possible through a grant received from the Lotteries Good Causes Fund managed by the Ministry of Finance, the Economy and Investment, was produced by Legwork Productions for FWA on a script by Guy Williams based on historical research conducted by Mario Farrugia. The new production combines modern footage, with original views of the gun, its steam driven machinery and the fort, historical re-enactments by the fort’s garrison and computer generated imagery to reconstruct aspects of the fort and gun which no longer survive and also to show how the 100-ton gun worked.

Mario Farrugia, Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna’s Executive Chairman explained that to produce this film, overseas onsite location filming was also undertaken at Gibraltar, Portsmouth Dockyard, Fort Nelson also in Portsmouth, Newcastle and Bristol. The film features interviews with international experts in the fields of historic naval construction, artillery and warfare. Two versions were produced – a shorter version for viewing at Fort Rinella as part of the overall visitor experience at the site, and a longer version for home viewers which can be obtained from all FWA heritage sites.

To mark this occasion, FWA will be holding an all-day Heritage Day at Fort Rinella between 10.00am and 4.00pm. Throughout this day, the new film will be viewed every hour. Historical re-enactments recreating aspects of past garrison life in the fort will also be staged with the main one starting at 2.15pm. During these re-enactments, the original cannon of the time will be fired along with a host of period weaponry. Period military food will also be served throughout the day, namely army soup and hard-tack biscuits. Guided tours around the fort will be offered by FWA volunteers both in Maltese and English. FWA members will go in for free.

Additional Information:

Fort Rinella is a later 19th century coastal battery built for a singular 100-ton gun – the world’s largest muzzle-loading gun in history. Since 1991, it is managed by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna – the Malta Heritage Trust and it is open to the public daily. Historical re-enactments are held at this site daily from 1.00pm till 4.00pm. It is located at St. Rocco Street, Kalkara and can easily be reached by number 4 bus from Valletta leaving every 30mins. Limited free transport will be offered from the Saluting Battery in Valletta at 12.15pm and 1.00pm and back at 4.00pm at the end of the main re-enactment display starting at 2.15pm.

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