A tour of Lanzun Tower followed by a brief talk will take place this Saturday in San Ġwann.A tour of Lanzun Tower followed by a brief talk will take place this Saturday in San Ġwann.

A visit to Lanzun Tower and a public lecture in Maltese are being organised by Wirt San Ġwann this Saturday.

No early dates of the building are available. What is known is that a certain Wenzu Lanzon from Vittoriosa, having lost his family during the pestilence of 1676, decided to live in the country far away from his home.

His farm was often targeted by the Moors who landed in Spinola and attacked the farms in the valley known as Wied Għomor. So Lanzon fortified his farm and turned it into a little fortress.

This seems to have happened in 1713 as the date appears under a balcony. These last years, the tower is occupied and looked after by the Order of St Lazarus.

The Order of St Lazarus had its origins in a leper hospital founded by St Basil outside the north wall of Jerusalem in the 4th century AD. The hospital was dedicated to St Lazarus when used in the late 11th century as a facility to segregate and care for pilgrims who had contracted leprosy during their travels to the Holy City.

■ The visit and talk on Saturday is open to everyone who is interested in heritage and is free of charge with no need to book. The tower is located in front of the Mensija Sanctuary in San Ġwann. The talk will be delivered in Maltese by Chev. Charles Savona Ventura, the grand prior, grand archivist and historian of the Order of St Lazarus.

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