Fra Alof de Wignacourt was elected Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta on February 10, 1601. As the seventh French grand master in Malta, Wignacourt invested handsomely in the security and prosperity of the island’s inhabitants. By the time he died aged 75 on September 14, 1622, almost 400 years ago this month, his legacy had enriched the Maltese islands with important memorials of his benevolence and virtue. These include the aqueduct that bears his name, and which arches its way towards Valletta; Caravaggio’s greatest oeuvre at St John’s Co-Cathedral; his set of coastal watch towers; and his promotion of St Paul’s Grotto in Rabat. It is no wonder he was one of the most popular grand masters with the Maltese of his day.

Early career

Born on July 16, 1547, Wignacourt joined the Order in 1564 and distinguished himself in the Great Siege a year later. He enrolled as a knight in the Langue of France in 1566, becoming grand prior the following year. In 1570, he was appointed captain of the new city of Valletta until the Order crossed over from Vittoriosa. In 1571, he was again engaged in battle, this time in Lepanto.

In 1586, Wignacourt was in charge of Europe’s biggest infirmary when he was appointed Infermiere della Sacra Infermeria, followed, in 1588, by his appointment as general treasurer; 10 years later, he was promoted to grand hospitaller. In 1600, as commissioner, he regulated the running of the Order’s caravan fleet. This experience served him in good stead when, during his time as grand master, he watched over several vivid naval exploits against the Turks, amassing enormous amounts of booty to the Maltese treasury.

Wignacourt’s naval accomplishments must have made him very popular with members of the Order and certainly paved his way to the unanimous acclamation in 1601, when elected to fill the most dignified post of the Order on the death of his predecessor Fra Martin Garzes (1595-1601).

The fleur-de-Lys

The new grand master’s coat of arms consisted of four quarters, displaying the Greek cross of the Order on the first and fourth quarters, with the second and third ones showing three fleurs-de-Lys in a triangular formation, one above two. A blue label above the lilies completes the latter.

When completing the aqueduct arch between Birkirkara and Santa Venera that bridged the water flow from one side of the street to the other, suitably called the Wignacourt Arch, the blazon with the three fleurs-de-Lys was placed on it. This inevitably gave the new locality its name, Fleur-de-Lys, as it is still known today.

St John’s and the corso

Early in his term, Wignacourt accepted a petition to build a small oratory at St John’s Co-Cathedral for private devotions and for novices to receive spiritual formation. In 1604, the grand master allocated chapels to the Order’s Langues in the conventual temple, dedicating each one to a patron saint. He chose St Paul for his own Langue de France. He also endorsed Our Lady of Victories church as a parish for the Order, where baptisms of the converted took place. A hanging silver oil-lamp bore his coat of arms.

In 1605, he set up the Magistrato degli Armamenti, ordering that no corsair ships fly foreign flags. In this new maritime register, all such sailing vessels originating in Malta were to be approved by the grand master himself.

Caravaggio’s masterpiece

Caravaggio arrived in Malta from Naples in July 1607. While favoured by Wignacourt as a Knight of Obedience, in 1608 the artist executed his largest and uniquely signed canvas of The Beheading of St John in the newly built oratory. He created other known paintings, including the famous portrait of Grandmaster Wignacourt himself, then about 60 years old, in formal armour, holding his baton of command, showing off the military might of the knights. The painting was executed in Malta c.1608. On this canvas, the artist seems to have understood Wignacourt’s accomplishment in turning the Order into a sovereign power, raising himself into a European affluent prince.

Coastal towers and forts

Aware of the island’s vulnerability to Ottoman attacks, the grand master constructed a defence tower in St Paul’s Bay. Wignacourt Tower was inaugurated on St Paul’s feast in 1610. It appears to be the oldest surviving coastal defence post on the Maltese islands.

Turning his attention to the island’s south, where attacks occurred frequently, Wignacourt built a second rectangular fort to protect Marsaxlokk Bay. He named it after St Lucian, commemorating the church where he had been baptised in France.

Wignacourt’s sense of defending Maltese rural areas was quite forewarning. On July 6, 1614, numerous Turkish galleys attacked the south, but thanks to St Lucian Fort, the Turkish armada was repelled. Instead, thousands of troops landed in St Thomas Bay and proceeded to ransack Marsascala and Żejtun. While Maltese and foreign soldiers lost their lives, at the end a French contingent, together with other fighters, engaged the enemy until the raiders retreated.

This ferocious attack left an enduring mark on the villagers of Żejtun, so much so that Fra Philippus de Castellit, prefect of the cavalry of Wignacourt, commissioned a painting The Beheading of St Catherine as an ex-voto. The painting, now in Żejtun Parish Museum, features the knight and, in the bottom left corner, a map of the site of the raid and Grand Harbour. The canvas is attributed to Caravaggio’s follower, Giovanni Giulio Cassarino. It used to serve as the main altarpiece of the old parish church.

The Ottomans’ incursion in 1614 has long been considered the fiercest since the 1565 Great Siege. That same year, Wignacourt, conscious of St Thomas Bay’s defencelessness, ordered another coastal fort to be raised in the same style and shape of St Lucian – rectangular with steep curtain walls and a tower at every corner – calling it St Thomas.

Wignacourt went on to construct other strategic coastal forts in the Maltese archipelago, including one on Comino in 1618 and the last one, in 1620, at Xgħajra near Żabbar. At his own expense, he also commissioned galleons for the defence of the coast.

St Paul’s pious cult

A very religious person with special devotions to St Paul and the Madonna of Mellieħa, Wignacourt strongly promoted St Paul’s Grotto in Rabat, which was revived by Juan de Beneguas, a pious nobleman from Andalusia. This hermit brought the devotion to Malta and settled in the site associated with St Paul, further spreading its fame as a place of pilgrimage. In 1609, Beneguas built a church above the grotto, entrusting, in 1617, the running of the devotion to the grand master. Wignacourt founded an institution with live-in quarters, which in 1981 was exquisitely transformed into the Wignacourt Museum.

Wignacourt’s religious zeal also led him to rebuild, in 1615, St Paul’s church, Rabat, which was annexed to the grotto in 1620. In the same year, the grand master also built the church of San Pawl Milqi (where the apostle was welcomed) on Roman ruins. A commission set up by the grand master in 1607 also saw to the setting up of the Monte della Redenzione dagli schiavi with the help of benefactors, among them the devout Caterina Vitale.

Giving life to the city

The years 1608 and 1609 were extraordinarily dry, and the Valletta cisterns did not supply enough water, so Wignacourt decided to rise to the challenge. After previous failed attempts, Bologna engineer Bontadino de Bontadini, with help from Maltese master mason Giovanni Attard, erected an aqueduct with Roman-type arches to allow water to flow through conduits to Piazza San Giorgio and Fort St Elmo, a 16-kilometre stretch. The inauguration of the arrival of the water in Valletta took place on April 21, 1615. Wignacourt paid most of the expense from his own pocket as part of his gioa (gift) to the Order. Water in the city improved both the standard of living and public sanitation.

Charles Xuereb is a historian.