Our Mediterranean lands and islands feature strongly fortified cities, such as the impregnable Valletta and Floriana land fronts, the similar triple land fronts of Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea (together constituting the three cities enclosed within the Margherita and the unfinished Cottonera lines), and the fortified city of Mdina.

Gozo’s Citadel is enclosed by a smaller set of encircling fortifications, but these are on a much smaller scale.

On the island of Cyprus, the eastern Venetian fortifications of the port city of Famagusta/Ammohostos was a result of similar siege warfare.

In Cyprus’s north harbour town of Kyrenia, the formidable castle now features decaying walls, which were powerful in their prime.

In Tuscany, Italy, the Renaissance walled city of Lucca features similar fortifications, which were seldom threatened.

One of the nearest walled towns to our Malta is at Carlentini in eastern Sicily, erected after a severe earthquake had destroyed many of the fortifications of its nearby mother city of Lentini, on the way from Syracuse to Catania.

It is clear that walled and fortified towns merit studies in themselves, of the standard set by our historian Stephen Spiteri.