Malta · 17th century
Fort St. Angelo (Maltese: Forti Sant'Anġlu or Fortizza Sant'Anġlu) is a bastioned fort in Birgu, Malta, located at the centre of the Grand Harbour. It was originally built in the medieval period as a castle called the Castrum Maris (English: Castle by the Sea; Italian: Castello al Mare). It was rebuilt by the Order of Saint John as a bastioned fort called Fort Saint Angelo between the 1530s and the 1560s, and it is best known for its role as the Order's headquarters during the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. A major reconstruction to designs of Carlos de Grunenbergh took place in the 1690s, giving the fort its current appearance.
The fort was garrisoned by the British from 1800 to 1979, at times being classified as a stone frigate known as HMS Egmont or later HMS St Angelo. The fort suffered considerable damage during World War II, but it was later restored. In 1998, the upper part of the fort was handed to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Fort St. Angelo has been on Malta's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, as part of the Knights' Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta.
Text adapted from “Fort St. Angelo” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fort St Angelo ranks #618 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #3 of the 39 mapped in Malta. Founded 1691, it is older than 22% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 721 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 7,281 times in the last 60 days, more than 91% of the atlas. 36 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Malta compares in the castle statistics.
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