Fort St Angelo
Harbour fortress at the tip of Birgu, key to the Great Siege of 1565 and later a Royal Navy base.
A fortification has stood on this promontory since at least the thirteenth century, when it was the Castrum Maris of the Sicilian crown. The Order of St John took it over in 1530, renamed it Fort St Angelo and added artillery platforms that introduced the bastioned system to the Maltese islands. It was the anchor of the Christian defence during the Great Siege of 1565, holding out against Ottoman bombardment while the town of Birgu, later renamed Vittoriosa, was besieged around it.
The engineer Carlos de Grunenbergh reshaped the fort in the 1690s into a heavy coastal work with tiered gun platforms facing the Grand Harbour. From 1906 the Royal Navy used it as the headquarters of its Mediterranean Fleet, commissioning it as a stone frigate and enduring dozens of direct hits in the Second World War; the last naval personnel left in 1979. Heritage Malta now opens the upper levels, including the magistral palace, the keep and the chapels, with displays interpreting the fort's long history.
Highlights
- Site of the Order's defence during the Great Siege of 1565
- Grunenbergh's tiered gun platforms over the Grand Harbour
- Medieval keep and the chapels of St Anne and St Mary
- Rooms recalling the fort's Royal Navy years as HMS St Angelo
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
