The art of building war machines

Although Malta is the only island with such an extensive network of military architecture, dating back to the Knights of the Order of St John, one may find it hard to distinguish between fortifications and military architecture.

An exhibition on the art of fortress building, the culmination of over 22 years of intensive research by Stephen C. Spiteri, will open to the public on Monday at the National Library in Valletta. Called The Art Of Fortress Building In Hospitaller Malta, the exhibition will run till the end of November.

Visitors will catch a glimpse of the records kept by the Knights of St John about the building of fortresses and the deliberations and debates that went on about them, even on the most minute details of the plans.

They will be guided through the showcase by means of captions in English. One can download a catalogue of the exhibition from arxsp639@ maltanet.net. There will also be an on-going powerpoint presentation in English.

Other exhibits include tools used in the quarrying of the stone, replicas of building instruments, and models to help explain the building techniques and the technicalities of military architecture.

Dr Spiteri pointed out that the skills required to build a fortress are not the same as those to defend it. "In this sense, a military engineer had to be a builder first and a soldier second.

"A few, like the renowned Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban excelled in both, while the rest of the military engineers struggled to combine the two skills. It was extremely important to match these skills otherwise a fortress could turn out to be its own worst enemy.

"My main concern throughout my studies and publications has revolved around the structure of a fortress, that is around the fortress as building," Dr Spiteri said when interviewed.

In his research, Dr Spiteri focused on two main sources. One was the physical evidence provided by the bastions and fortresses themselves and secondly the unique archive of detailed records collated by the Knights of St John now housed at the National Library.

"The military engineer had to know what he was doing from the very design to its execution. He had to look on the fortress and its bastions as a structure.

"There are many examples of works of fortifications that are either poorly sited or badly constructed with inadequate materials and erected on fragile foundations. This shows that not all the military men who were assigned the task of building defences had an expert grasp of the art of fortress building."

Gilormu Cassar and his son Vittorio were the only Maltese to have been appointed to the position of resident military engineer by the Order in Malta.

Compared to other fortresses built elsewhere, Maltese fortifications are not a mass of earth but are fashioned out of the rock face.

The material needed is quarried out of the ditch around the fortification. The lime and the mixture of soil and stone fragments used as binding and filling agents were products of the local franka and the earth scraped off the site. Moreover, the franka limestone cushioned the impact of bombs.

"Malta offers a unique combination of military architecture, firstly for its concentration in a small area, secondly because in that very same concentration, various building styles are incorporated.

"For example, Valletta features the Italian system introduced by Francesco Lapparelli in 1566, while the outer works, based on ideas from northern Europe were added in 1640. Additionally, there were added in 1700 covered ways and glacis designed on French patterns by Mondion and his team of engineers."

Such fortifications were literally bomb proof because they were carved out of the rock face.

The knights carried out regular maintenance on the forts and it is recorded that the outer layer of the stone was replaced several times in a number of forts.

The reason why plants grow on fortresses and bastions is a technical one. As an economic measure, instead of pointing with lime as a binding material, soil was used.

"One has to bear in mind that bastions and fortresses were built as functional tools, not as monuments. The prime concern was the urgency of defence and not longevity, hence the shortcuts."

Dr Spiteri has for a long time been lobbying for the setting up of a museum of military architecture, ideally incorporated in a part of the fortifications.

"Such a museum would help explain the art and science of military architecture. It would be an institution housing models, charts and guides.

"I am looking for a place in a fortress not off the beaten track. We already have a fortress explorer society, which means the interest is already there. Likewise, students of baroque architecture would be very much interested in such a place".

This would be an institution linked to the university of Malta, through the International Institute of Baroque Studies.

"I would like to see such an idea come to fruition at some stage because our unique military architecture heritage deserves it".

Dr Spiteri will shortly publish a book bearing the same name as this exhibition.