The star-shaped Fort St Elmo, which stands on the seaward side of the Sceberras peninsula that divides Grand Harbour from Marsamxett Harbour, commands the entrances to both harbours, together with other fortifications built during the rule of the Order of St John.

However, when the Order arrived in Malta in 1530, the existing fortifications were less than the bare minimum. Where Valletta now stands was completely bare except for a permanent watch post situated on the tip of the peninsula. The Order knew that the obvious solution for absolute security was to fortify the whole of the peninsula. But there was one great snag: the monetary means to do so were sorely lacking.

Fort St Elmo as originally built.

The already-mentioned watch post had existed at least since 1417 and, in 1488, it was augmented with a watchtower dedicated to St Elmo, which the Order of St John reinforced in 1533. However, this was not enough to dominate the entrances to the two harbours, especially Marsamxett, a fact rudely pointed out in 1551 when a Turkish fleet sailed into the harbour, completely unopposed, and proceeded to land a force of about 10,000 men who, however, soon left the island and went on to ravage Gozo and capture Tripoli. This event galvanised the Order of St John to fortify the seaward tip of the peninsula to prevent a recurrence of 1551.

Juan de Vega, the Viceroy of Sicily who sent the military engineer Pietro Prado to Malta. Prado designed and oversaw the construction of Fort St Elmo. Photo: Wikipedia.com

The influential knight of the Order of St John Leone Strozzi, Prior of Capua. He was in the commission tasked with drawing up plans for fortifying the tip of the Sceberras peninsula. Photo: Wikipedia.com

The Knights petitioned for the loan of an eminent engineer to advise the Order on what was needed, and carry out eventual fortifications. The Viceroy of Sicily, Juan de Vega (viceroy 1547-57, died 1558), released the engineer Pietro Prado (or Prato or Pardo) who duly proceeded to Malta and, in January 1552, carried out a review of the fortifications with a commission made up of three knights of the Order, namely, Georg Bombast, Louis de Lastic and the influential Leone Stozzi (1515-54).

Work started on the fort on January 14, 1552. The grand master stipulated that it had to be ready by around mid-May or early June

As already stated, building a new city occupying the whole of the peninsula was way out of the Order’s means, but the decision was taken by Grand Master Juan d’Omedes (1536-53) and the Venerable Council to fortify the tip of the Sceberras peninsula by building a fort in place of the existing watchtower (which is the building under review here) and another one on the Isola peninsula, where Senglea now stands.

There was a sense of urgency because of the fear that, after their easy landing in 1551, when the sailing season opened, the Turks would again come to lay siege to Malta. So it was imperative that the new fort would be ready in double-quick time. Therefore, work started immediately on the proposed Sceberras fort on January 14, 1552. It was named Fort St Elmo after the dedication of a chapel that existed on the site.

Juan d’Omedes, the ruling grand master when Fort St Elmo was constructed. His orders to have the fort ready within a very short time probably contributed to some of its deficiencies.

The Aragonese (Spanish) Grand Master Juan d’Omedes stipulated that the fort had to be ready by the time when the Turks would reasonably be expected to arrive, around mid-May or early June. So workers were conscripted from the countryside and imported from Sicily, and the galley slaves were taken ashore and pressed into the ‘building service’. By March 1552, when the already-mentioned Knight George Bombast was named as the first governor of the fort, St Elmo was taking shape.

Unfortunately, this haste probably resulted in various weaknesses in the fort’s design. Because the grand master wanted the fort to be ready by June 1552, Prado restricted his design to a small star-shaped fort with four very acute-angled bastions that could easily be incorporated as a bastion within the enceinte of a city if it were to be constructed in the future.

Fort St Elmo after restoration: the plaza and barracks.

Such stellar forts were very popular at the time, especially in Spain and, anyhow, Fort St Elmo was not built to withstand a full-scale siege but to defend the entrances to the two harbours. Yet Prado was criticised because of the small size of the fort, its small bastions, and the fact that it was dominated by the higher ridge of Mount Sceberras, which could only be remedied by, at least, building a fort on the highest point of the ridge, which the order was unable to do due to lack of adequate finances. The narrow bastions were not adequate to provide suitable platforms for the artillery, and there were no causeways and traverses to protect the defenders.

But most of the criticism should not have been directed to Prado but to the grand master, who was adamant as to the short time allotted for building the fort, thus leaving the engineer with no real alternatives. Although Prado sited the fort on a raised knoll of rock and provided it with a deep ditch, it was comfortably overlooked by higher ground.

The front walls of Fort St Elmo after restoration.

But Prado’s instructions did not include encompassing those heights. The fort was not a stronghold constructed to hold out against the all-out attacks of a prolonged formal siege, since it lacked magazines or storehouses and had no keep to which defenders could withdraw. In fact, the fort depended on supplies ferried across Grand Harbour.

However, there was justified criticism on other counts: no outworks were included in Prado’s designs; no cavalier and no ravelin were designed. Actually, to remedy these defects, a few years later, in 1554, a high cavalier was constructed on the seaward side but separated from the main fort by a dry ditch.

Fort St Elmo: The ditch.

A ravelin was only built in 1564, to protect the approaches from Marsamxett, outside the fort’s bastion facing Santa Maria Point (later renamed Dragut Point) just before the Turkish invasion the following year. Both were hastily built, resulting in poor construction work.

But this criticism of poor construction work could also be levelled at the fort in general which had thin walls and, as already noted, lacked traverses to protect the defenders, probably resulting from the restricted site.

The poor quality of the stone and lime used for the original constructions could be attributed to Prado. It was normal practice for the engineer in charge, Prado in this case, to supervise the preparation of building materials, but it seems Prado failed to do so.

All things considered, the fort was strategically very well-placed. Together with the guns of Fort St Angelo, the entrance to Grand Harbour (there was no breakwater in those days) was denied to an enemy invader.

Fort St Elmo in 1565. Photo: Heritage Malta

On its own, Fort St Elmo denied access to Marsamxett Harbour to the enemy as, indeed, was the case in the Great Siege of 1565, when the Turks were forced to neutralise this small fort before they could make use of the harbour.

An 18th century plan of Fort St Elmo showing the cavalier connected to the fort and the barracks, among other buildings. Photo: National Library of Malta

This little much-maligned fort, expected to fall within a week, actually held out for 31 days and, in the process, inflicted great losses on the Turkish army and, perhaps more importantly, gained valuable time in which the strongholds of Vittoriosa and Senglea could be strengthened.

St Elmo was in ruins after its heroic siege but it was rebuilt on the same lines, enlarged and fitted with barracks, mills and cisterns. The ditch was deepened and the cavalier was henceforth connected to the fort.