Fort Saint Elmo

Fort Saint Elmo (Maltese: Forti Sant'Iermu) is a star fort in Valletta, Malta. It stands on the seaward shore of the Sciberras Peninsula that divides Marsamxett Harbour from Grand Harbour, and commands the entrances to both harbours along with Fort Tigné and Fort Ricasoli. It is best known for its role in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.

By 1417, the local militia had already established a permanent watch post on the tip of the Sciberras Peninsula. In 1488, the Aragonese built a watchtower on Saint Elmo Point, and it was dedicated to Erasmus of Formia, better known as Saint Elmo. In 1533, the Order of Saint John reinforced the tower due to its strategic location. In 1551, an Ottoman raid occurred in which the Turkish fleet sailed into Marsamxett Harbour unopposed. Due to this, it was decided that a major expansion was necessary, and in 1552 the tower was demolished and a new star fort began to be built. It was designed by a Spanish Engineer named Pietro Pardo. It had a cavalier, a covertway and a tenaille. A ravelin was hastily constructed months before the 1565 siege.

In 1565, in the Great Siege of Malta, the Ottomans invaded Malta once again with much more force than in 1551. Fort Saint Elmo was the scene of some of the most intense fighting of this siege, and it held out for nearly a month, withstanding massive bombardment from Turkish cannon deployed on Mount Sciberras that overlooked the fort and from batteries on the north arm of Marsamextt Harbour, the present site of Fort Tigné. The initial garrison of the fort was around one hundred and fifty knights and six hundred soldiers, the majority of whom were Spanish, and sixty armed galley slaves. The garrison could be reinforced by boat from the forts across the Grand Harbour at Birgu and Senglea.

During the bombardment of the fort, a cannon misfired and hit the top of its parapet, sending shards in all directions. Debris from the impact killed the gunner and mortally injured the corsair and Ottoman admiral Dragut, one of the most competent of the Ottoman commanders. The fort withstood the siege for 28 days, falling to the Turks on 23 June 1565. None of the defending knights survived, and only nine of the Maltese defenders survived by swimming across to Fort St. Angelo on the other side of the Grand Harbour after Fort St Elmo fell.

Text adapted from “Fort Saint Elmo” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Saint Elmo ranks #487 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 19 mapped in Malta. Founded 1552, it is older than 39% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 718 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 10,468 times in the last 60 days, more than 93% of the atlas. 16 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Malta compares in the castle statistics.

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