Fort Chambray : the genesis and realisation of a project in eighteenth-century Malta

Abstract

The need to fortify and render more defensible the coast of Gozo was felt as early as the first years of the eighteenth century. In fact, during the grandmastership of Ramon Perellos y Roccaful (1697-1720), Louis Francois d'Aubigne de Tigne, then on his second visit to Malta, had prepared a report, dated I716, recommending the erection of a combined fortress and town at Ras-et-Tafal overlooking Mgarr harbour.' The plan by A.F. Gervais de Palmeus, first published in 1751, shows a fortress with frontal fortifications and a gridiron fort plan laid out with several blocks ofresidential buildings. The northern fort is heavily fortified to resist attacks from the enemy, which having invaded the island, could lay siege to the fort along its Ghajnsielem front.