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ViGiLO - Din l-Art Ħelwa
ISSUE 56 • NOVEMBER 2021
A STRING OF
FORTIFICATIONS Trekking along the Victoria Lines by Joseph Galea Debono
Some years back, in the company of Professor Anthony Bonanno, I started trekking along various sections of the extensive defence work known as the North West Front, constructed by the British in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Eventually we delivered a series of joint lectures at Din l-Art Ħelwa’s Maurice Caruana Curran Hall, in which we traced the path of the infantry line and the fortifications and other archaeological and historical sites along its entire length. This article captures some of my impressions of these walks.
I
n the first decades of their presence in Malta, the British were quite satisfied with the fortifications built by the Order of St John around the Grand Harbour. But, as the importance of the naval base grew, particularly after the opening of the Suez Canal, and with the fast pace in the development of artillery, their military engineers felt the need to secure the entire harbour area from landward bombardment and attack by building outlying perimeter fortifications to keep a potential enemy as far away as possible from the concentration of military installations and urban conglomerations around the Grand Harbour. After years of proposals, counter-proposals, plans and reports, the military experts decided to build a string of fortifications along the Great Fault, a prominent geological feature which bisects the island in half, isolating the central and southern areas from the north-
west segment with its numerous bays and inlets, which were very prone to landings by an enemy. Work on this new line of defence began in earnest in 1874 with the building of three forts in very strategic locations, namely Fort Bingemma at the western extremity, Fort Mosta in the centre and Fort Madliena at the north-eastern edge of the Great Fault. In 1895, work was started on a continuous infantry line linking the three forts, smaller batteries and the Dwejra Lines. As by 1897 – the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee – the works were far advanced, the whole length of the fortifications was named in honour of the Sovereign. This article is limited to the stretch of the works from Baħar ic-Cagħaq to Targa Gap in the centre of the island.
