Wignacourt Tower, St Paul’s Bay

Built in 1610, this impressive tower occupies a prominent position along the coast of St Paul’s Bay.  Despite that, and despite the fact that I’ve lived in the area for a couple of years, we had never ventured inside before now even though we’ve walked past the place countless times.

The tower underwent some refurbishment recently, but now it is open for business, and at only €2 a head it’s well worth popping inside to take a look.  When the tower was constructed this would have been regarded as a remote and dangerous posting for any soldiers sent out here to guard against the ever-present threat of raiding pirates.

In order to make this life-threatening post rather more appealing to the average soldier, the fort was kitted out with all the mod-cons that only the wealthiest of early seventeenth century householders could imagine.  An indoor latrine!  (well, a hole).  Indoor cooking facilities!  Beds!

Hopefully such swanky accommodation did not turn the guards too soft, as they were still expected to be on guard against those pesky pirates, who had a habit of swooping down to Malta to nab an unsuspecting farmer or two and sell them into slavery.  From the roof the soldiers would have had a good view of any advancing corsairs and the cannons would act as something of a deterrent too.

There is a small display on the ground floor featuring an overview of Maltese history, and the gentleman manning the desk really knew his stuff.  After a quick look around you then go up a rather tight spiral staircase to the soldiers’ living quarters.  Up another flight and you are on the roof, from where you get a very nice view of the surrounding area.  Like I said earlier, you can’t go far wrong for €2 in this day and age so take 20 minutes to pop in and have a look.