Fort Saint Elmo

Fort Saint Elmo is the star-shaped fort at the tip of Valletta's peninsula, commanding the mouths of both Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour. Its fame rests on a single month in 1565: during the Great Siege of Malta its small garrison held out against the full weight of the Ottoman army for 28 days, and the time it bought is widely credited with saving the rest of the island.

The point was watched from the early 15th century, and the Aragonese raised a watchtower here in 1488, dedicated to Saint Elmo (Erasmus of Formia). After an Ottoman fleet sailed unopposed into Marsamxett in 1551, the Knights of St John replaced the tower from 1552 with a proper star fort designed by the Spanish engineer Pietro Pardo. In the siege of 1565 around 150 knights and 600 soldiers defended it under relentless bombardment from Mount Sciberras above. The fort fell on 23 June; none of the knights survived, and only nine Maltese defenders escaped by swimming across the harbour. The Ottoman corsair-admiral Dragut was mortally wounded here by debris from a misfired cannon. After the siege, the Order built Valletta itself on the peninsula, and Francesco Laparelli rebuilt the shattered fort into the new city's defences. The Vendôme Bastion followed in 1614 and the Carafa Enceinte, a ring of seaward bastions around the whole fort, from 1687.

Saint Elmo kept its military role for four more centuries. It was the target of the first air raid on Malta on 11 June 1940, and its guns helped destroy an Italian seaborne attack on the harbour in July 1941. After the Royal Malta Artillery left in 1972 it decayed badly and was placed on the World Monuments Fund's watch list in 2008; restoration was completed in 2015. Today part of the fort, including the Vendôme Bastion, houses Malta's National War Museum, whose collection includes a replica of the George Cross awarded to the island in 1942. Archaeologists found remains of the original pre-1565 fort during the restoration, and the ramparts give views over both harbours and across to Fort Ricasoli. Parts of the fort are also used by the police academy and for historical re-enactments; the lower outworks remain closed and neglected.

Getting there

The fort stands at the far end of Valletta, about 400 metres from the city centre, and is an easy walk through the city. Malta International Airport (MLA) is about 7 km away.