Discussions are underway for continuation of the restoration of Gozo’s Fort Chambray, after a comprehensive study was recently presented to the authorities.

Gozitan businessman Michael Caruana has told Times of Malta that over the past two years, “an architect was assigned to monitor all the fortifications, and to come up with a report regarding the stability and the current situation of the fortress”.

He said the report was presented to the authorities almost two months ago and includes a plan of all the needed interventions.

Caruana took over Gozo’s biggest fort from the government in 2004, against a premium and annual rent, and transformed it into a hub of luxury apartments.

He said he was in discussion with the competent authorities to address the infrastructural issues according to the contract terms.

On January 2, Times of Malta reported how parts of the 18th century fort are lying derelict and at risk of collapse as they await long-overdue restoration.

The stonework has been badly eroded and large blocks have fallen from the bastions, while wide fissures run down the walls.

Reacting to that story, environment and heritage NGO Wirt Għawdex said it had long been calling on the authorities to preserve the fort.

It had proposed a detailed study to the Gozo Ministry in 2018 and confirmed that it carried out the study.

A final report was drawn up and passed on to the ministry “towards the end of 2021”.

The NGO said that last August, it once again insisted that “pressure should be made to preserve and maintain Fort Chambray, as this historical gem, which also houses a unique polverista (gunpowder magazine), has for many years been left in a pitiful state of neglect”.

New photos sent to Times of Malta last week show that the fort is in no better condition on the inside.

Cracks run down the walls and along the floors, and bushes, trees and wild vegetation sprout through the cracks, with dry weeds all over the place.

Pictures taken recently from the outside show a number of iron bars that appear to have recently been fixed into the walls to support the outer layer of the bastions and prevent more stonework from falling off.

Another NGO, Għawdix, said that as a consequence of the fort’s privatisation, the public has lost access to it and is now risking losing this heritage.

“This is a case where historical heritage is at stake consequent of a former government agreeing to the privatisation of what is and should have remained common heritage,” the NGO said.

“We call out the entities concerned, specifically those who are under contractual obligation to carry out maintenance and restoration works, to take the required urgent action. We are already losing a lot of Gozo’s heritage, natural and historical, at an alarming rate. We cannot risk losing more.”

The fort, overlooking Mġarr harbour, was built in the early 1700s by the Knights of St John as part of their defence strategy against attacks from the sea.

It was meant to act as another cittadella – a fortified city in which Gozitan people could gather to seek refuge in the event of a siege.

‘Geological movement is to blame, not neglect’

 One of the professionals involved in the Fort Chambray restoration project is leading architect Alex Torpiano.

His team has been working on Fort Chambray since 2008 and he told Times of Malta that “extensive restoration works” estimated to have cost €650,000 have already been undertaken between 2005 and 2014.

He also said his office prepared a restoration method statement document that was submitted with a Planning Authority application which was approved last July.

However, he said the problems with Fort Chambray are not the consequence of neglect or abandon, but of a very particular rock movement in the area.

“Unfortunately, the geology of the site in particular is such that there is significant continuous movement of the substructure around the periphery, particularly in the west-facing bastions,” he said.

“These movements require more than normal restoration works, but substructure engineering interventions, also from outside the perimeter of the fort. The costs of these works go certainly beyond the Lease Agreement obligations.”