The Ultimate Guide To Malta’s Prolific Historical Hobby: Competitive Fort Building Wars Throughout The Ages
Malta has been called the fortress island by the British due to our sheer amount of military architecture. Among these we find war rooms, coastal towers, saluting batteries, redoubts and walled cities. Our island’s strategic position in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea and our natural ports have helped in strengthening this claim throughout the ages.
Our most prominent and well-known fortifications come from the Knights and the Imperialists, however we have fortifications which date back to the Bronze Age. Presumably Bronze Age people really needed something to do during their long hours of boring berry picking and hunting, so they decided to resort to competitive tower building.
Throughout this series, we will be guiding you through these lovely fortifications — just in case an apocalypse breaks out or something.
What better place to start, than the very beginning?
One can find numerous scant remains of Prehistoric fortifications around our islands.
These include Ras il-Ġebel in Mġarr, Borġ in-Nadur in Birżebbuġa, remains in Baħrija, in-Nuffara in Xagħra, Qortin in St. Paul’s Bay and Wardija ta San Ġorġ in Siġġiewi.
These six sites were built during the Bronze Age, however most of them are literally just a bunch of rocks scattered on the grass nowadays. Well, soon you will find out who lost The Bronze Age Fort Wars.
The Wardija ta’ San Ġorġ area in Siġġiewi, although no longer standing, supports the idea that cart ruts were indeed used to transport giant ass stones from one area to another.
There are cart ruts in the area between where the fortification used to stand and Ta’ Żuta cliffs.
photo from Megalithic.co.uk
The Nuffara remains in Xagħra, Gozo, on the other hand, are silo-like structures and holes in the ground, where pottery remains and tiny clay anchors were found. Part of the area is surrounded by a Megalithic wall.
The Borġ in-Nadur site, on the other hand, has some interesting insights when it comes to its fortification — it was built facing inland and not the sea.
This might mean that people from that era probably fought amongst themselves and quarrelled about who built the best fort. We assume that the Borġ in-Nadur people won their fort wars since it’s the only fort standing from the era.
The people of Birżebbuġa seem to always have had the upper hand throughout history — from winning the Prehistoric Fort Wars with Borġ in-Nadur, to holding the honorary title of Malta’s Miami since 2017.
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