Restoration works on Fort St Angelo are being carried out through a €1.5 million government grant.
A further €16 million worth of ERDF funds have been applied for so that the restoration of the whole fort to could continue transforming it into a visitors' attraction including an interpretation and visitors centre.
Architect Reuben Abela, who is in charge of project, said emergency works on the fort started in June when the swimming pool, that dates back to the 1980s, was removed together with a water tank that was overlooking it. Both were on the bastions.
Trial trenches will now be cut into what was the pool to analyse what lay beneath, plan the next stage and see what should be done with the space.
The roof of the entrance, which had received a direct hit in WW11, would eventually be restored to its original vaulted structure which dates back to time of knights. A tender would be issued for the works
During the war, a bomb had opened up a crater, which the English repaired with metal beams and concrete. This intervention rusted with time damaging the stone in the process.
A complex operation has to now be carried out to remove the remedial work of the English and return the place to what it was before it was hit.
Mr Abela said the idea behind the works was is to retain as much as possible from what the Fort was prior to 1979 to preserve its military history.
Works, he said, had to be carried out in sequence and not parallel because studies and investigations needed to be carried out to see how one intervention could possibly affect another.
Research was a vital part of the project because, in reality, little was known about the fort's history. So it was imperative not to damage the fabric and lose information.
Mr Abela noted that tenders for the main gate have been issued but an appeal has caused a delay.
The last time the fort received a full restoration was in the 1930s. Since then, inferior stone has deteriorated.
Mr Abela hoped Malta would be awarded the ERDF funds it requested for the project in October.
Another part of project includes excavation work on site to understand it better. Such work was likely to unearth some surprises as regarded the multi-layer of the fort. There were, possibly, fortifications that pre-date the knights, he said.
Lands parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi, described the works "on the unpolished diamond" as the first historic serious and professional coordinated work in decades.
Tourism parliamentary secretary Mario de Marco said the time had come to give priority to Malta's historical heritage which had been neglected and which was a reflection of Maltese history and identity.
From the tourism point of view, year round success could be achieved through investment in this because one did not need a good climate to visit St Angelo, he said, adding that success was already being noticed and seasonality was decreasing.