A structure comprising a fort, a lighthouse and a monastery with a chapel apparently dominated the islet of Filfla some 200 years ago, according to a very rare and previously unknown map of Malta which recently surfaced in a library in Germany.

The map was discovered by German scholar Michael Ritter, who is a specialist in the cartographers of Augsburg and who brought it to the attention of the Malta Map Society.

The map, says the society’s secretary Joseph Schirò, is extremely rare and to date its existence was unknown even to society president Albert Ganado, who has been studying Maltese maps for 60 years.

It is the only one known to exist and is found in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.

Filfla was heavily bombed by the British forces, who used it as a target for naval bombing for many years.

Read more on Times of Malta.