Arx Occasional Papers - Hospitaller Gunpowder Magazines

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES
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ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 1 / 2011 - FORT TIGNE 1792
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ARX Occasional Papers - ISSUE 2 / 2012

Copyright - Dr Stephen C Spiteri Ph.D
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2012
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Hospitaller Gunpowder
Magazines
A study of the Magasins Poudre and other military storehouses built by the Knights
of the Order of St John in the Maltese islands throughout the course of the lateseventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries.
By Dr. Stephen C Spiteri Ph.D.

Gunpowder began to play an important role in the
history of the Hospitaller Order of Knights of St John
from the moment that it began to power projectile
weapons strong enough to influence the outcome
of warfare and military affairs. Learning quickly from
the lessons of the Turkish siege of Constantinople
of 1453, the Knights of St John were quick to exploit
the potential of gunpowder-operated artillery in
both attack and defence. By the early 15th century
the words bombarda and bombardieri became
common entries in the Orders records, revealing
an ever-increasing reliance on the new technology.
This development is also physically attested in the
surviving remains of the military architecture of the
period, in the towers with gun-loops, in the ramparts
with their embrasures and in the underlying
countermines, built from the reign of Grand Master
Fluviano onwards. Inevitably, the procurement,
manufacture, and storage of gunpowder became
important functions in the affairs of the Order and
special officials had to be appointed to administer
both the munitions that worked the new artillery and
the guns themselves. Heading the new department,
by the early 16th century, was the Commander
of Artillery who, in time, came also to assume
responsibility for the Orders armouries and other
military store houses.
Specific references to the title of Commander of
Artillery, however, only begin to appear in the early
in decades of the sixteenth century. At the end of
the fifteenth century it was more common to find
commissarii encharged with visitandas pulverers et
munitions artillierum. In 1491, for instance, we find
the knight Fr Iohanne Danalon elected deputato ad
custodiam artilleriae while in 1502, Fr Franciscus
Blacars was made Praceceptor artillariae, Probi
hominess artilleriae.Mention of the election of
probihomines tends to imply that the system of
having a commander of artillery assisted by two
prudhommes had already been formulated by the

early 16th century. Employed within this setup
were also a number of bombardiers necessary to
work the artillery and a few capomastri in charge of
the production and storage of gunpowder. Most of
these, judging by the surviving records, were Latin
rather than Greek. An Italian, Petrus de la Mota,
for example, is listed as peritus (expert) in arte
ballistica and in the use of artillariae grossae whilst
a list of bombardiers employed on guard duty at Fort
St Nicholas in 1516 gives only European names.
As with its armouries, the Order also adopted
a centralized system of artillery and powder
magazines within the fortress of Rhodes and this
in turn fed a large number of outlying strongholds
and outposts. Among the supplies being shipped
to the island of Kos and St Peter Castle at Bodrum
in 1470, for example, were salis nitri rafinati et
cantaria ferri. Enties such as Rotoli di bona
Dr Stephen C Spiteri Dipl. (Int. Des.) RI, B.A.

(Hons), Ph.D, was born in Malta, 15 September 1963.
Dr Spiteri works in Heritage Conservation and specializes
in the military architecture of the Hospitaller knights of
St John and the fortifications of the Maltese islands.He
is the author of a number of books and studies on the
military history and fortifications of Malta, the Knights of
St John, and British Colonial defences. He is a founding
member of the Sacra Militia Foundation for the Study
of Hospitaller Military and Naval History and is also a
part-time lecturer at the International Institute of Baroque
Studies at the University of Malta, where he lectures
on the history and development of military architecture,
and on the art and science of fortification. Dr Spiteri is
currently working on new second editions of his books
Fortresses of the Cross (1994) and The Great Siege of
1565 (2005).
3
polvere di bombarda, Rotoli di fino salnitro, and

unum carratellum salisnitri et unum sulfitris show
that gunpowder was imported both as a readymade product and in the form of raw materials to be
manufactured on the island.
By the time of the arrival of the Order of St John in
Malta in 1530, the role gunpowder and gunpowderoperated artillery had increased even further. The
Islands small and obsolete defences, however,
were not fitted out to house the new artillery and
the storage of vast quantities of gunpowder needed
to work both the fortress and galley guns. During
the early years of the Orders stay in Malta, the
Knights had to transform the Castrum Maris into
a self-contained martial complex, giving it hastilyconstructed armouries, magazines, and even
setting up powder factories within its walls. As early
as 1530 one already encounters a commissario
pro emenda salpetra to be followed by a string
of knights elected to oversee the administration
of artillery and munitions, the prudhommes under
the commander of artillery; Fr George de S.
Iohanne et Hieronymus Avogardo probi hominess
machinarium bellicorum; Fr Johannes Centeno
electus probus homo artillariae (1552); Fr
Alfonsus Correa ... probus homo tormentorium
bellicorum sive artillariae (1554); Gerardus de La
Tour, who was removed from his post of capitanei
tormentum bellicorum in 1555 and condemned ad
quarantenam propter rixam; Iacobus Francisco
Guasco prob. ballistrum incendiarum (1557). The
task of mounting i pezzi dartiglieria nei loro posti
nella nuova citt ([Vittoriosa] e nella Senglea per
rispetto dellArmamento Turchesco, in 1568, was
entrusted to Fr Franciscus Gozon detto Melac,
Bal di Manisca.
There were two methods by which the Order

obtained its gunpowder - either importing it readymade,or else producing it locally from imported
ingredients. Both practices were resorted to in
Rhodes and Malta. As with the acquisition of
arms and armour, the Order obtained its stocks
of gunpowder from a wide variety of sources. In
times of serious emergencies caused by threat
of invasion, frantic efforts were made to acquire
vast stocks of powder from any readily-available
source. Perhaps the most celebrated instance
of the importation of powder is the arrival of 200
barrels sent to Malta by the Duke of Florence just
prior to the arrival of the Turkish armada in 1565.
Above and below, The gunpowder magazine at Fort St Angelo. This

structure is undated but seems to have been built after 1690. It has
a vaulted interior and small events placed high up in the walls. The
windows are a later British alteration. The magazine stands outside the
walls of the inner castral enceinte, just outside and near the barbican
and may possibly occupy the site of an earlier gunpowder factory that
was in use up until the Great Siege of 1565. (Image Source: Authors
private collection).
That the Order imported gunpowder from a large

variety of sources is well documented by the
archival records. The names of individual producers
are often mentioned. In 1679, for example, a
contract was given out to Michele Puglielmi,
Francese, per la fabrica di polvere. Mention is also
frequently made of Polvere di Francia, Polvere
di Genova fina and Polvere dOlanda, the latter
conveyed to Malta con vassello da Amsterdam
fra altre munitioni ordinate. When the urgency and
threat of war were far less pressing, however, it
often proved cheaper to produce gunpowder locally
than to import it from abroad, particularly given the
large and continual demand for it by the Orders
armed forces.
The first gunpowder factory was established inside
Fort St Angelo but no descriptions of this edifice
are known. It appears that the Knights had found
some sort of gunpowder-producing plant already in
existence when they took over the Castrum Maris
in 1530. The medieval records of the Universit
of Mdina show that, in May 1504, one of two large
cauldrons used for the refining of saltpetre was sent
from the Islands old city (Mdina) down to the castle
by the sea to be used by gunner Joannes Tudiscu.
Undoubtedly this small plant would have been
enlarged by the Knights to enable them to increase
their production of gunpowder, given the larger
demand required by the vast quantity of cannon
that were now needed for the defence of the new
fortifications. This powder factory is still recorded
in existence during the Great Siege of 1565 when,
unfortunately for the Knights, it blew up in the early
stages of the siege. The Orders records tell us
that on 19 June 1565, one hundredweight (circa
50 kg) of powder blew up and eight persons who
were working at the mill or sleeping there at the
time were killed; amongst these was Sigismondo
Farrugia, a lute player. Immediately following the
explosion, Grand Master Jean de Valette appointed
a special commission headed by the knights Fra
Oliver Starkey and Don Petro de Mendoa to
look into the cause of the explosion in order to
establish wether this was the result of negligence or
sabotage. The exact location of this powder factory
is not known but by the seventeenth century Fort
St Angelo had acquired a magazine situated just
north of the medieval barbican, outside and below
the inner castrum area of the old enceinte, built,
perhaps, on the same site of the old factory. In this

location, the magazine would have been safely
located in an open area between the fortress two
enceintes Grunenburgs new ramparts and the old
medieval trace. Early gunpowder-making facilities
did not have sophisticated plant. Relatively small
quantities were then made by hand with pestles and
mortars. From the investigations made following
the explosion of the powder factory at Fort St
Angelo during the early stages of the Great Siege,
it appears that the production depended mostly
on civilian manual labour. This can be deduced
from the fact that the commissioners were made
to investigate why so many people, particularly
civilians, had such a free access to this factory.
Gunpowder
Gunpowder is made from a mixture of three basic
ingredients, saltpeter (salnitro - potassium nitrate),
charcoal, and sulphur. None of the ingredients
could be found locally, not even charcoal, for even
trees were scarce on the island - everything had to
be imported. In 1775, Antonio Pace fu mandato
in Torino per appredare the necessary carbone
ed il salnitro. The Lascaris Foundation, set up in
1645 by Grand Master Lascaris, was established to
provide, among many other things, for the compra
di miglio salnitro. The production process involved
the mixing together of the three components, the
mixture being processed and refined to produce
various grades of gunpowder. The local factories
were capable of producing various grades of
quality of gunpowder. The Polvere di Malta fina,
for example, came in two varieties con lustro
and senza lustro. The Order was also aware of
the importance of not keeping too much powder
in store but of hoarding instead only the materials
required to produce it, quello che pi comple alla
Religione e il tener i materiali da farne il polvere,
perche queste non si guastano.
5
Another is the arrival in Malta, during the reign of

Grand Master Pinto in 1761, of quattro bastimenti
carichi di polvere, bombe, alcuni cannoni, mortari
di bronzo e due detti volgarmente obusier, caricate
parte in Marsiglia parte in Tolone during the crisis
caused by the capture of the Corona Ottomana.
Earlier in 1669, following fall of Candia to the Turks,
commission was given to the ricevitore Tarascone
to buy mille cantara di polvere. By 1793, however,
the Orders war machine had grown so much that
requests for powder were then of the magnitude of
4,000 quintali polvere di mina and 6,000 quintali
polvere di cannone.

Two echaugettes on the Valletta counterguards. Up until the end of
the seventeenth centuries such echaugettes were being used for the
storage of gunpowder. (Image Source: Authors private collection).
When the Order of St John transferred its

headquarters from Birgu to the new fortress of
Valletta in 1571, the Knights took with them all the
important military establishments. A luogo dove si
fa la polvere was eventually established in the lower
part of the city, in the vicinity of the slaves prison
on the site of the present Cottonera block. That
this was not an ideal location is attested by the fact
that when the Valletta powder factory accidentally
blew up on 12 September 1634, the explosion
killed 22 people and seriously damaged the nearby
Jesuits college and church. The Orders records
show that by 1665 the Knights were still looking for
un luogo fuori della citt per raffinar la polvere. In
that same year, however, the Congregation of War,
determined to resolve the situation, instructed the
resident military engineer, Mederico Blondel, to draw
up plans for a casa accomodata per fare e raffinare
la polvere which was to be built nella floriana dalla
parte che riguarda il porto di Marsamscetto.
This new polverista was duly erected and was
already producing gunpowder by 1667. The
building appears to have consisted of a cruciform
6
Above, Plan of a section of the Floriana enceinte showing the location

of the Ospizio, built around the mid-seventeenth-century gunpowder
factory, shown in plan, opposite page, left (Image Source: National
Library of Malta (NLM). This was built to replace an earlier edifice which
was situated in Valletta, tragically demolished by an explosion in 1634,
opposite page, top. (Image Source: Authors private collection).
structure enclosed within a high-walled rectangular

enclosure. It was equipped with tre molini used
for the production of zolfo e salnitro, probably of
the type driven by beasts of burden. By the early
eighteenth century it was also served by a number
of magazines or mine (casemates) situated in the
vicinity, one of which was known as dellEremita
and another del Tessitore. Soon after the
construction of then nearby casemated curtain,
around 1722, the master-in-charge of the polverista,
Giovan Francesco Bieziro proposed the utilization
of the trogli nuovamente fabbricati within the same
casemated curtain to be used for the production
of gunpowder. By the beginning of the eighteenth
century, this polverista had became a prominent
landmark, and is seen on many of the plans and
views of Floriana. This is hardly surprising, for it was
then practically one of the largest buildings within
a still mostly barren enclosure formed by Florianis
ramparts.
It appears that the Floriana gunpowder factory
continued to function in such a capacity until the
early 1720s, for the building seems to have been
then incorporated into a larger complex known as
the Casa di Carita, later known as the Ospizio,
which was established on the same site by Grand
Master de Vilhena as a place to house poor and
destitute old men and women. Apparently, by then,
a number of local entrepreneurs had taken over the

production of gunpowder on behalf of the Order.
Indeed, in 1775, it was suggested that il Casino
che altrevolte era de P.P. Gesuiti nella Marsa could
serve, with some alterations by the Bal de Tign, as
a luogo proprio for the production of powder by a
certain Antonio Pace.
The Polveriste
The storage of gunpowder was a risky undertaking
that required adequate and safe spaces free from
the risks of fire and bombardment, and adequately
protected against spoilage from dampness or rain
water. Such gunpowder magazines had also to
be located away from built up areas to ensure the
safety of the garrison and the inhabitants.
In the sixteenth and seventh centuries there were
no established forms of structures specifically
designed to serve solely as gunpowder magazines.
Any ordinary available building, preferably dry,
could be put to use as a powder store when the
need arose. This is perhaps best illustrated by
the Orders practice of storing gunpowder inside
the echaugettes (Italian guardiole, Maltese
gwardjoli) scattered around the bastioned enceintes.
However, the Commotione che fece in tutta questa
citt [Valletta] lincendio di certa polvere conservata
in una guardiola di uno de rivellini congiunti alla
contrascarpa di essa citt colpita dal fulmine in
1662 did not deter the commissioners of war from
once again proposing the same use for the other
quattro garrote (guerites) to be found around the
7
walls of Valletta. Even so, it also dawned on them

that it was important not to store all the polvere di
rispetto (reserves stocks of gunpowder) in one area
and so a commission of knights was charged to
inspect la polvere, e dove stia, e conservarla divisa,
et in luoghi, dove non debba tenersi da un solo
accidente una ruina irreparabile.
As a result of these investigations, it was then
recommended that apart from the four echaugettes
situated on the Valletta counterguards (fortificatione
del Marchese St Angelo) another six new
magazines were to be constructed to enable an
overall capacity of 600 cantara of gunpowder,
judged necessaria per riserva. The commissioners
were then also of the opinion that the quantity of
gunpowder inside the magazine of Fort St Elmo
(apparently situated within the cavalier) was to be
reduced to only 8 cantara and those inside Fort
St Angelo, in ciascheduno delli due magazeni
superiori, to only 10, although nel fosso there was
to continue to be retained tutta quella quantit che
serve per le galere et altro maneggio quotidiano.
The estimated cost of the repairs to the guardiola
damaged by lightning (la garrita voltata dalla
Graphic
reconstruction
of the warehouses
built by Grand Master
Lascaris in the midseventeenth-century to house
gunpowder and muskets bought
through a special foundation that he
set up from his own pocket. The building,
which was grafted to the flank and gorge of
St John Cavalier in Valletta was demolished
around the late 1950s. (Image Source: Authors
8private collection).
Above, inset, Plan of the Lascaris

warehouses used for the storage of
gunpowder (Image Source: NLM) and,
bottom, marble plaque with inscription
which was once affixed to the
building (Image Source:
Authors private collection).
Left, Various examples of Vauban-style gunpowder magasins

poudre constructed in France in the late seventeenth century.
From top to bottom; Ile de Re, Ile de Aix, Hiers-Brouage at
Saint Luc, and the poudrieri at Boulogne (Images Source:
Authors collection). Note the various styles of counterforts and
enveloping walls. Such structures were to serve as patterns for
the construction of the Hospitaller magazines in the course of
the eighteenth century, introduced to the Maltese island through
French military engineers like Brigadier Ren Jacob de Tign
and Charles Franois de Mondion. The first to be built were
the two examples at Fort Manoel, to be followed by others
constructed in the reign of Grand Master Pinto at Floriana,
Valletta and Ras Hanzir. Right, Plan of a magazin poudre
based on the pattern established by Sebastien le Prestre de
Vauban, as illustrated in the treatise by Abb du Fay and Chev.
de Cambray entitled Veritable maniere de fortifier de Mr. de
Vauban, printed in Amsterdam in 1726 (Image Source: Authors
private collection). The squarish structure has walls ventilated
by events (see pages 30-1) and is enclosed by a boundary
wall.
polvere) was 700 scudi whilst another 300 scudi

were required to construct the other stores.
One of the earliest known edifices that are
recorded as being purposely built for the storage
of gunpowder was a range of warehouses erected
by Grand Master Lascaris in Valletta. This complex
of two-storeyed warehouses, affixed to the flank
and gorge of St John Cavalier, was erected in
1646 to house the muskets and gunpowder
purchased with the money derived from a special
foundation established by the same Grand Master.
The building, unfortunately, was demolished in
the decades after the Second World War but the
commemorative slab which once crowned the main
faade was removed and fixed to the wall of the
cavalier: it reads MIGLIO SALNITRO E MOSCHETTI
DELLA FONDAZIONE LASCHERA A.MDCXXXXVI.
The few existing photographs of the exterior of this
structure, as well as a surviving plan, however, show
that the building had no special storage features
in relation to gunpowder, other than perhaps that
it was dry and safely sheltered by the towering
cavalier.
The Orders Magasins poudre la Vauban

By the late seventeenth century military engineers
had begun to introduce specialized buildings
designed specifically for the safe storage of
gunpowder. These gunpowder stores came to be
known by various names. In the Orders records
they are frequently referred to as polveriste,
magazzino da polvere or magasins a poudre. In
the military language of the time they were also
referred to as polveriere (Italian - see G. Grassi,
POLVERIERA: Edificio nel quale si fabbrica or si
conserva la polvere: quello nel quale si fabbrica
la polvere chiamasi piu particolarmente Mulino; e
quello destinato solamente a conservarla chiamasi
Magazzino); Almacen de plvera (Spanish), and
poudrieres (French).
10
In the Maltese context, a gunpowder magazine

was sometimes also referred to as a polverista.
Strictly speaking, however, this is an Italian word
which actually referred to the person who worked
in a magazine or manufactured gunpowder ( see
G.Grassi, - POLVERISTA, Colui che fabbrica la
polvere da Guerra ), what the French called a
poudrier.
It was the arrival of French military engineers
to Malta in the early 1700s which was to see
the introduction of purposely-built gunpowder
magazines throughout the Maltese islands.
Designed la Vauban, the new French-designed
structures followed, in typical French fashion, a
standardized form of construction based on a
rectangular plan reinforced with lateral counterforts
and fitted with gabled roof. These dedicated
buildings had various special features built into their
design so as to make them bombproof, fireproof,
and damp-proof.
Their slanting roofs and barrel-vaulted interiors
gave them great resistance against bombardment,
helping to deflect mortar shells and cannon balls.
Indeed, upwards of 80 shells are said to have been
thrown upon a magazine of this type at Landau,
without doing the least damage to the vault; the

same thing was reported to have happened at
Ath, and in the siege of Tournay by the Duke of
Malborough where of the 45,000 shells fired into
fortress, the greater part fell upon two powdermagazines and yet neither of them was damaged.
Such extraordinary resistance was achieved largely
by the vaulted interior and the buttressing provided
by exterior counterforts
The magazines were also amply cross-ventilated to
provide a good circulation of air. This was achieved
by a combination of large windows set high up in
the end walls (pignons) and a series of small blind
ventilation shafts (known as sfiatatori, in the Orders
records, and events in French military jargon) and
controlled access points, both of which ensured
that no potentially dangerous material could be
introduced into the storage areas. These magazines
were given raised floors to help aerate the whole
structure and reduce the problem of rising damp.
A good description of a Vauban-style powder
magazine is provided by John Muller in his A
Treatise containing the practical part of fortification
(1755), based on Bernard Forest de Blidor:
11
The dimensions of Mr. Vaubans magazines, are as

follow; the plan is 60 feet long, clear within, and 25
broad; the foundations are 9 or 10 feet thick under
the long sides which support the arch; and these
sides he made 8 or 9 feet thick, according as the
masonry was good or indifferent, and 8 feet high
from the foundation to the spring of the arch; so that
making the floor about two feet from the ground to
keep it free from all dampness, there remained 6
feet for the height of the story.
The thinnest part or hanches of the arch
(intermediate parts of arches between the crown
and the spring at the bottom, being about a third of
the arch, and placed nearer the bottom than the top,
likewise called spandrels), and the arch made of
four lesser ones, one over the other, and the outside
of the whole terminated in a slope to form the roof;
from the highest part of the arch to the ridges is
8 feet, which makes the angle somewhat greater
than 90 degrees; the two wings, or gable ends, are
four feet thick, raised somewhat higher than the
roof, as is customary in other buildings; as to their
foundations they are 5 feet thick, and as deep as the
nature of the ground required.
The piers or long sides are supported by four
counterforts, each of six feet broad, and four feet
long, and their interval 12 feet; between the intervals
of the counterforts, are the air holes, in order to
keep the magazine dry and free from dampness; the
dices of these air holes are commonly a foot and a
half every way, and the vacant space round them
three inches, made so as the in and outsides be
in the same direction, as may be seen by the plan;
the dices serve to prevent an enemy from throwing
fire in, to burn the magazine, and for a further
precaution, it is necessary to stop these air-holes
with several iron plates, that have small holes in
them like a skimmer, or otherwise fire might be tied
to the tail of a small animal, so drive it in that way;
this would be no hard matter to do, since where this
precaution has been neglected, egg-shells have
been found within, that have been carried there by
weasels.
To keep the floor from dampness, beams are laid
long-ways, and to prevent these beams from being
soon rotten, large stones [are] laid under them,
these beams were 8 or 9 inches square, or rather
10 high and 8 broad, which is better, and 18 inches
distant from each other; their interval is filled with
dry sea coals, or chips of dry stones, then over
these beams are others laid cross-ways, of 4 inches
broad, and 5 high, which are covered with two inch
Right, Powder magazines designed on the system introduced
by Vauban as illustrated in Bernard Forest de Belidors treatise
La Science des Ignenieurs dans la conduite des travaux de
fortification et darchitecture civile, printed in Paris in 1729.
Bottom right, Plan and sectional elevations of a Vauban-type
gunpowder magazine employed in the fortress of Gironde,
France. Note that the magazines have no events in the front
and rear walls (pignons) but only in the flanks and that the
dimensions of the interior were roughly in the ratio of 2:1.
12
13
These two pages illustrate the plan, shape,

form, and structure of a typical Vaubanstyle gunpowder magazine built in the
Maltese islands (Image source: Author)
The original Vauban-type magazines
had no events in the front and rear walls
(known as pignons)
but only along
the lateral sides.
Later magazines,
such as that built
at Floriana, however,
were also equipped with
such events, on each
side of the doorways.
By 1803, Guillaume de
Vauldoncourt could
write in his journal that
it was the practice to
pierce the walls of
the pignons by
un grande
nombre dvents, de 4 pounces
environ de large, sur 15 a 18
pounces de haut; coups
dans leur longeur par un ou
plusiers ds, ferms par des
grilles en cuivre, et disposes
de manire que lair circule
galement sur tous les
points.
pignon
Barrel-vaulted interior
of magazine
Garde de feu boundary wall

securing magazine
Main entrance to magazine

generally closed off
by a pair of doors and
surmounted by a large
window used to ventilate
the interior
14
Ventilation shafts known as events or

sfiatatori. Vauban-type magazines had
no events in the front and rear walls.
These were built in later models such
as that found in Floriana (see page 25)
ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 1 / 2011 - FORT TIGNE 1792
planks. [This does not apply to the Maltese version

of the Vauban magazine, which had a stone floor]
To give light to the magazine, a window is made in
each wing, which are shut up by two shutters of 2 or
3 inches thick, one within and the other without; that
which is on the outside is covered with an iron plate,
and is fastened with bolts, as well as that on the
inside. These windows are made very high, for fear
of accidents, and are opened by means of a ladder,
to give air to the magazine in fine dry weather.
There is likewise a double door made of strong
planks, the one opens on the outside, and the other
within; the outside one is also covered with an iron
plate, and both are locked by a strong double lock;
the store keeper has the key of the outside, and
the governor that of the inside: the door ought to
Internal yard used for

the drying of gunpowder barrels in warm
weather
Sloping roof of gunpowder

magazine designed to deflect
shoot and bombs and supported on a double arched
vault prova di bomba
Lateral counterforts
(contraforti)
15
face the south nearly if possible; in order to render

the magazine as light as can be, and that the wind
blowing in may be dry and warm. Sometimes a
wall of 10 feet high is built round the magazine
about 12 distant from it, to prevent any thing from
approaching it without being seen.
Such a magazine as this will hold about 200,000
pounds of powder, when the barrels are six above
one another, which however is not done, but in case
of necessity, because when they lie so much on
each other, it is very troublesome to remove them,
and change their position, which ought to be done
once a year at least; otherwise the salt petre, being
the heaviest ingredient, will descend into the lower
part of the barrel, and the powder above will lose
much of its goodness; but to prevent the barrels
form rolling, when some are taken off, two wooden
posts are erected, of about 4 or 5 inches square,
between every 10 or 12 barrels, by this means
Above, A 1715 proposal for a magazine on St Clement Bastion,

Cottonera. French engineers envisaged three magazines along
the Cottonera enceinte, as shown in the plans below (1715) and
bottom (1717 or later).(Image source: Courtesy of the NLM).
St Clement Bastion
St James Bastion
St John Bastion
St Clement Bastion
St James Bastion
St Louis Bastion
16
they me piled up as high as you please, or taken off

without any danger.
The first reference to such magazines is found
in Brigadier Rene Jacob de Tigns first report of
1715. Brig. Jacob de Tign headed the seminal
French military mission sent to Malta in 1715 and
was responsible for introducing many new ideas
and procedures within the Hospitaller military
establishment. In his second report of 1717, Brig.
de Tign called for twelve gunpowder magazines,
six of these at Cottonera and the rest in Floriana (4)
and Valletta. The cost of these works was estimated
at a little more than twenty-thousand scudi. Below
are the main entries:
(47) ... trois magazines poudre en forme de
Retrenchement, dans les gorges des bastions ...
9000 [scudi];
(48) ... trois autre magazines ordinaires dans trois
autres bastiones qui serviront a mettres les poudres
en temps de paix ... 6000 [scudi]
( ) .. vourter preuve de bombe les magazins
sous leus les cavaliers de la porte Realle ... 2000
[scudi]
(17) ... des magazines preuve de bombe, derniere
la muraille neuve de la porte des Chiens [Porta
dei Cani - St Anne Gate, Floriana] et dans le
retrenchement des capucins
(20) ... deux magazines poudre preuve de
bombe dans linterieur des Florianes ... 3000 [scudi].
Some of the plans which accompanied Brig. de
Tigns report have survived and these enable us
to identify both his magazins ordinaires as being
Above, A 1715 proposal by French military
engineers for a gunpowder magazine built into
the redoubt of a retrenchment cut into the
gorge of St Paul Bastion, Cottonera, in the
manner shown in the authors graphic
reconstruction below (Image source
of plan: Courtesy of the National
Library of Malta).
17
Above, Map of Valletta and its harbours showing the knights

main gunpowder storage areas around the late eighteenth
century. The triangles show the French-pattern magazines, the
other shapes, show ordinary casemates and stores (see text).
la Vauban, and the ones which were meant to

form part of the proposed retrenchments in the
three of the Cottonera bastions. None of these
ordinary magazines were ever built, but the Knights
did eventually come round, many decades later, to
implement de Tigns proposal for the construction
of gunpowder magazines on one of Vallettas
cavaliers and on Capuchin Bastion.
The first to be built on such a pattern where the
two polveriste at Fort Manoel, followed by others
at Floriana (Capuchin Bastion), Vendme Bastion
(Valletta), and in St John Cavalier (Valletta). The
two magazines erected at Fort Manoel were both
located in the centre of their respective bastion in
accordance with the practice adopted by Vauban,
which was meant to protect the fortifications from
the blast of an accidental explosion. The magazines
were also located on the bastions most distant from
the forts land front enceinte:
M. de Vauban a toujours plac les magasin

poudre au centre des bastions vuides,
comme le lieu le plus propre pour les cacher a
lennemie, & les isoler, en cas daccident du
feu, de la ville & des fortifications: ma il y a des
Ingenieurs qui les aiment mieux le long du pied
du rempart des courtines, afin de conserver le
vuide des bastions pour les ouvrages ou les
travaux necessaire pour disputer le terrein pied
pied lennemi.
In practice, only one of the two magazines erected
at Fort Manoel appears to have been actually
18
used for the storage of powder. The second was

employed for the storage of other unspecified items.
Not all of the Knights forts and fortresses, however,
had been fitted with the Vauban-type of magazine
by the time of the French invasion in 1798. Although
various plans in the Orders archives show that the
Knights had planned to erect similar magazines
at Mdina, Chambrai (Gozo) and other fortresses,
most of the major works of fortification, as a matter
of fact, such as Fort Ricasoli, Fort St Elmo, Fort St
Angelo, Senglea, Birgu, Mdina etc., still continued
to store their complement of gunpowder within
the vaulted casemates set inside their ramparts.
The dangers inherent in such archaic storage
arrangements are best illustrated by the incident of
the Froberg mutiny at Fort Ricasoli in 1807 which
resulted in the demolition of a considerable section
of the forts ramparts after desperate mutineers fired
the gunpowder stored inside the casemates in St
Dominic Demi-bastion. The list below shows the
magazines which are known to have been in use by
the late eighteenth century:
Valletta
St John Cavalier (Vauban-style)
Vendme Bastion (Vauban-style)
Floriana
Capuchin (Dhoccara) Bastion - (Vauban-style)
Fort Manoel
St Anthony Bastion (Vauban-style)
St Helen Bastion (Vauban-style)
Cottonera Lines
St Clement Bastion (general store - alla leggera)
St James Bastion (general store - alla leggera)
Fort Chambrai
Guardian Angel Bastion
(two proposed Vauban-style magazines not constructed)
Above, A proposal, dated to the early 1720s, for the

construction of a Vauban-type magazine on De Redin Bastion
at Mdina (Image source: Courtesy of Prof. D. de Lucca). This
was not built. Right, Undated plan, possibly pre-1740, but with
British annotations, showing what appears to be a gunpowder
magazine with counterforts in the ditch of the ritirata to the left
of St Mark Bastion, Floriana, prior to the construction of the
magazine on Capuchin (Dhoccara) Bastion. (Image source:
Courtesy of the National Library of Malta). There are no records
to show that this structure was ever built.
Gozo Citadel
Near St John Demi-bastion
St John Cavalier
Ras anir - depository for naval and foreign vessels
(Vauban-style)
Fort St Angelo
Vaulted structure situated near barbican
Two casemates within DHomedes Bastion (for naval use)
Birgu (Vittoriosa)
Casemate near Porta Marina (demolished)
Fort Ricasoli
Casemate in St Dominic Demi-Bastion (Demolished)
Mdina (Citt Notabile)
Casemates within De Redin Bastion (a proposed
Vauban-style magazine on same bastion not
constructed)
Fortifications known to have kept stocks of
gunpowder but exact locations unknown:
Fort St Elmo
Senglea
Santa Margherita enceinte
Fort San Salvatore
19
20
This page, above, View of the Vauban-type gunpowder

magazine at Fort Manoel, situated on St Helen Bastion. The
Fort had two such structures (see detail of plan of Fort Manoel
on opposite page) but one of these was demolished by the
British military in the course of the nineteenth century. The
photographs above and right show the main faade (pignon),
facing the interior of the fort with its large access doorway and
ventilation window. Note that, in typical Vauban style, the faade
is not perforated by events. Bottom, view of the right side of
the magazine showing three of the lateral counterforts, two
of which were pierced by doorways at a much later date. The
magazine also lost all of its events when the side walls between
the counterforts were pierced by arched openings designed
to enable the magazine to serve as a garrison reading room.
(Images source: Authors private collection).
Left, top, Plan of the Magazino da Polvere e Munizioni ( la
Vauban) on St Helen Bastion, Fort Manoel, showing Britishperiod annotations in pencil related to the conversion of the
magazine into a reading room. (Images source: Courtesy of the
National Library of Malta).
21
22
23
The two gunpowder magazines of Fort Manoel,

only one of which has survived, were placed in the
middle of empty bastions, away from the land front,
in typical textbook fashion as established by Vauban.
The image above shows Fort Manoel around the
early 1860s prior to the onset of British interventions
which saw the demolition of the left magazine on
St Anthony Bastion (inset). The main photograph
shows the right magazine on St Helen Bastion prior
to restoration works.
This page, A mid-nineteenth century view of the Vaubanstyle gunpowder magazine which was erected on Capuchin
(Dhoccara) Bastion, at Floriana. Note the enveloping security
wall and the then still-unadulterated state of the bastion, prior
to the massive British alterations. Below, Details of the Floriana
magazine as existing today. (Images source: Authors private
collection).
24
Plan of Capuchin Bastion (Dhoccara Bastion) at

Floriana showing a proposal for the construction
of a Vauban-type gunpowder magazine built
prova di bomba (i.e., heavily vaulted). Note that
the structure has only lateral events and none on
the front and rear pignons, unlike the structure
that was eventually built, completed during
the reign of Grand master Pinto de
Fonseca. Note also that, initially,
the designers idea was to have
one large mur de scurit sealing
off the gorge of the bastion but
eventually a smaller enclosure was
erected immediately around the
magazine, seen sketched in pencil.
(Image source: Courtesy of the
Right, Early 19th century plan of
the Floriana magazine as actually
built. Of great interest is the shape
of the events, which is much
simpler and avoids the use of dice.
(Image source: Authors private
collection).
25
Left, and below, Plan an sectional elevation of the Floriana gunpowder

magazine, drawn during the early nineteenth century and showing both the
interior tavolatura (skidding) as well as the outer boundary wall that was eventually
employed to protect the storage area. Of particular interest are the steps that lead
up to the rear entrance, and the vertical wooden dividers. Note also, the simplified
type of events that were employed in the walls. (Images source: Authors private
collection).
26
Above, Sectional elevation along the width of the Floriana gunpowder magazine,
drawn during the early nineteenth century, showing an interesting detail of what
appears to be the vertical wooden elements of the tavolatura (skidding) used
for the storage of barrels. Such a feature is not shown in Hospitaller period
drawings - the barrels are merely shown stacked on top of one another.
Here, however, it appears that a system of vertical dividers
was employed. This arrangement, however, may have been
a feature that was introduced by the British military. (Images
source: Authors private collection).
Authors graphic
reconstruction of the Floriana
Capuchin (Dhoccara) Bastion
gunpowder magazine after the
original proposed layout as shown
on the initial plan illustrated on the
previous page. The magazine was
intended to be closed off with a long
boundary wall cutting across the wide
open gorge of the bastion, much in the
same manner as that which had been
adopted for the two seaward-facing bastions
at Fort Manoel. In this case, the boundary
wall had two openings. Although, undoubtedly,
such a solution ensured a great degree of safety
by enclosing a large area, it nonetheless, would
inadvertently also have hindered the defence of the
place, by interrupting the movement of cannon and
other heavy ordnance from one part of the enceinte to
the other in the event of a siege
Opposite page, top left, Authors graphic reconstruction
of the Floriana Capuchin Bastion (Dhoccara) gunpowder
magazine as eventually closed off with a close-hugging
boundary wall. It is not clear if the initial proposal to erect
a long wall across the wide open gorge of the bastion was
ever implemented. Although still standing, a large part of
the magazine was engulfed by a huge earthen massif,
revetted in stone which the Royal Engineers constructed
on the norther side of the structure to shield it from naval
bombardment. A wooden barracca was set up within the
enclosure enveloping the magazine to hold in quarantine
some of the victims of the 1813 plague.
27
Magazine interiors and storage arrangements

Inside the magazines, the powder was kept in
wooden barrels stacked horizontally in rows on
wooden skids, or tavolate. The Orders records
reveal little details about the type and sizes of
barrels employed locally. Most probably, like
the magazines themselves, the barils poudre
followed French patterns, and around the end of the
eighteenth century French gunpowder barrels were
normally made of wood, mostly oak or chestnut, and
came in two main sizes: the larger ones containing 200
lbs of gunpowder being 63 cm long with a diameter
of 58 cm, and the smaller ones containing 100 lbs
of gunpowder, 58 cm long, and 43 cm de diameter
au bouge. These barrels were made of staves (dry
strips of redwood free of sap) forming the sides,
bound together by flexible bits of wood called
withies, or by copper hoops, stacked tightly together
along the top and bottom third of the barrels.
Such barrels were generally of convex shape,
bulging slightly at the middle this shape helped
distribute the stress evenly and made it easier for
the barrels to be rolled on their sides, changing
directions with little friction. The barrels were lined,
internally, with sacks of cloth in order to contain
the gunpowder, preventing it from spilling in the
event of the barrel breaking and also reducing
friction between the wood and the grain during
transportation:
La poudre est mise dans de barils qui en
contiennent cent ou deux cents kilogrammes;ceuxci sont referms dans de de seconds barils appels
chapes; les premiers sont garnis intrieurement de
Right, Authors graphic reconstruction of Hospitaller-type

skidding (tavolatura) employed in Malta inside the Cottonera
polverista, based on the details taken from a plan of the St
Clement Bastion magazine (Image source of plan: Courtesy of the
National Library of Malta). Bottom right, a French-type of
gunpowder barrel made of staves of redwood bound together by
flexible strips of wood called withies. Below, detail from Abb du
Fays treatise showing a plan of a typical event (sfiatatore)
28
29
facs de toile destins retenir la poudre si le baril

venoit se dfoncer, & diminuer le frottement des
grains dans le transport. Les douves & les fonds
des barils & des chapes doivent tre en chne on
en chataignier, refendu & non sci. Ces bois ainsi
dbits sappellant merains. Ils doivent tre tressains & sans aubier. Les cercles des barils & des
chapes sont galement en chne ou en chataignier,
coups en fve & dpouills de leur cosse
immediatement aprs la coupe. Ces prcautions
sont ncessaires pour quils puissent durer longtemps. On renvoie des place & des ports, dans les
poudreries, tous le barils & les chapes, mesure
quils se trouvent vides.
The barrels were generally stacked in rows on
wooden skidding, and raised above the floor of
the magazine to protect the gunpowder from rising
damp. French military text books of the period
advised military engineers not to stack 200 lb barrels
more than three rows high, and those of 100 lbs,
These two pages,

Various types of
events as found
in Hospitaller
fortifications in the
Maltese islands.
Right, top, Conical
polverista at Fort
Chambrai; bottom,
Floriana magazine,
and opposite page,
Gozo Citadel.
Far right, top:
Plan and graphic
reconstruction of
an event in the
polverista of Fort
Manoel, showing
its internal cube
(called a dice
or a die) and its
singular shaft. This
allowed air to enter
the magazine but
prevented objects
from being thrown
in. More complex
examples were
employed in the
magazine on
St Clement
Bastion, Cottonera
Lines. The
openings of the
shafts were closed
off with wooden
shutters, both
externally and
internally as shown
in diagram, left.
30
Events and Sfiatatori

Blind ventilation shafts, known as events in French, or
sfiatatori in Italian, ensured that no materials could be
introduced into the interior of the magazine from outside.
Le Blond provides the following description: Dans le milieu de
lintervalle des contreforts, on pratique des petite ouvertures
appellees events. Elles servant a faire entrer lair dans le
magasin; au milieu de levent est un espece de pilier, dont la
base est dun pied quarre. |Levent tourne autour, & il se termine
de part & dautre cote du mur. Il a trois pouces de largeur.
The rectangular pillar, known as a dice, served to intercept
the passageway halfway through the wall. The external and
internal openings were generally fitted with wooden apertures.
Some sort of metal mesh or leather sieves were sometimes
also placed inside the shaft to prevent birds from nesting. Three
types of ventilation openings have so far been encountered in
Hospitaller gunpowder magazines: the single slit version found
on most structures with central die; the more complex version
with additional four smaller openings which was only employed
in the two large general magazines in Cottonera; and the
simplified version as built in the Floriana magazine (bottom).
31
whether through a layer of wooden panels or by

means of other materials. No descriptions have
come to light. At the time, various French engineers
recommended that quantities of lime (chaux),
muriates of lime (formed from lime and muriatic acid
and remarkable for their great attraction for water)
or charcoal, were to be kept inside the entrances
of magazines in order to absorb the moisture from
the air and keep the magazine interior dry. They
also advised that the interior walls of the magazines
were to be whitewashed with thick layers of lime
(biancheggiatura) so that this covering served the
same purpose. Traces of biancheggiatura, can in
fact still be found in the Floriana magazine, but
it is difficult to determine if this is still an original
coating. Most of the buildings at the time, whether
military or civilian,however, would also have been
whitewashed, as this was a common practice.
Left, The vaulted interiors of the gunpowder magazines at Fort
Manoel (top) and Floriana. Below, Detail of a hinged wooden
shaft shutter of what appears to have been an early British
period event. Bottom, Detail of the interior opening of one of the
shafts of the events in the Floriana magazine. Note the recess
for the supporting frame.
not higher than four rows. The barrels were to be

laid in multiple rows, depending on the size of the
magazine, and kept at least half a metre away from
the side walls and at least 1.5 m from the front and
rear walls (pignons). The barrels were kept away
from the walls not only to protect the powder from
dampness but also to allow them to be inspected
with ease from both sides.
Bergere, writing in 1820, recommended that in
a typical small magazine, the powder should be
stacked in four rows, with a double row on each side
of a central passage 90 cm wide.
The type of skidding employed in the Orders
magazines is depicted in a number of plans still to
be found in the Orders archives. Foremost amongst
these are those showing the general magazine on
St Clement Bastion at Cottonera (see illustration
on page 37). These show the barrels laid out in
double of wooden beams (tavolatura) each resting
or rectangular wooden blocks laid down at regular
intervals of around the length of twelve barrels laid
side by side. The barrels are shown stacked three
barrels high (see page 28).
The Orders records also reveal that the walls of the
magazines were sometimes padded (infoderate) to
help reduce the effects of rising dampness through
the walls. It is not clear how this was achieved,
32
This page, Details of the

lateral counterforts employed
at the Floriana gunpowder
magazine on Capuchin
(Dhoccara) Bastion, together
with a view of the rubble and
earth packing forming the
protective roof layer (clad in
large, shaped capping stones)
crowning the vault of the same
magazine.
These contraforti do not have
the same pronounced slope
that was given to the two
magazines at Fort Manoel.
The structure may have been
designed and constructed by
Francesco Marandon, who
at the time, was the serving
resident engineer. (Images
source: Authors private
collection).
33
The Orders storage arrangements.
Throughout the eighteenth century the Orders

military planners sought to re-organize the storage
arrangements of gunpowder stocks distributed
around the vast network of harbour and coastal
fortifications by implementing a system of
magazines inspired by the French system. By the
mid-1700s, a number of specialized buildings had
been erected to replace the archaic and unsafe
storage facilities employed up until then with a new
hierarchy of gunpowder stores designed to house,
on one hand, the vast quantities of the islands
general reserves of gunpowder and, on the other,
the requirements of individual forts on the other. In
this, the Knights followed the French method which
employed the following categories of gunpowder
magazines:
General reserves of Gunpowder:
- Magasins de dpt constrution leger
- Magasins poudre de sret
Storage facilities for individual works of fortification:
- Magasins poudre
- Magasines poudre des batteries
Below is a brief description of the various categories
of magazines:
Magazins de dpt and de sret

Magazines de depot and de sret were large
buildings designed to hold vast quantities of reserve
stocks of gunpowder in times of peace. These were
generally located as far away from inhabited areas
as possible, but still within the safety of the fortified
enceinte. Such storehouses were not usually
designed to be bombproof as they were not meant
to withstand bombardment. In times of siege, their
stocks of powder would have been redistributed
amongst the various smaller bombproof magazines
feeding the various batteries and works of
fortification. By the mid-eighteenth century, the
Orders largest central depository was situated in
the uninhabited esplanade behind the Cottonera
enceinte.
Magazins de dpt :On doit tablir en France, hors
des villes et loin des frontires, linstar de ce
qui a lieu chez quelques puissances trangres,
de grands magasins de dpt, dune construction
lgre et moins dispendieuse que celes des
magasins des places, er destins recevoir en
rserve lexcdant des produits des poudreries,
aprs quelles ont approvisionn les place leur
porte. / Ces depots doivent etre places aux
noeuds des grandes communications, pour quil soit
toujours facile den diriger les approvisionnnemens
partout ou il sont necssaires. / Chaque dpt
se compose de deux magasins, et chacun de
ces magasins peut contenir environ 300,000
Authors graphic reconstruction of the type of general

gunpowder magazine which was built on both
St James Bastion and St Clement Bastion,
Cottonera Lines. Only that at St James
Bastion is still standing.
Opposite page,
Plan proposal
for the construction
of a large general
magazine coperto alla
leggiera intended to be
built on St Clement Bastion.
A similar magazine was also
constructed on St James Bastion.
(Image source: Courtesy of the
34
35
kilogrammes de poudre. Le prx approximatif de

chaque magasin de dpt, murs denceinte et
fosses compris, ser de 95,000 francs. (B.H. Cotty 1832)
Magasins poudre de sret: Il existe dans
beaucoup de places des magasins qui, par le
peu de distance qui les spare des habitations,
donnent des inquitudes fondes et ont
frquemment provoqu de vives rclamations de
la part des autorits locales. Cette circostance
est gnralement une consquence de
laccroissement de la population de ces villes,
par suite duquel les construction se sont
successivement leves proximit des magasins
placs originairement dans une position isole. /
Le meilleur moyen de remdier cet inconvenient,
sans abandonner des magasin indispensables, a
paru tre dtablir hors des places des magasins
de sret destins recevoir en temps de paix les
poudres conentues dans les magasins signals
comme dangereux; ce qui se pratique chez
quelques puissances trangres. (B.H. Cotty 1832)
Magasins poudre and des batteries: The
magasins poudre held the powder complement
allocated to a fortress. These were generally
constructed in the centre of open bastions situated
on that part of the fortress enceinte which was least
exposed to direct enemy attack and bombardment.
A number of magazines, however, were built within
the protective carcasses of pre-existing ramparts
(see below). By the end of the eighteenth century
few of the major fortress had been equipped with
free-standing powder magazines and most (Fort
Ricasoli, Fort St Elmo, Fort St Angelo, Birgu,
Senglea, the Sta Margherita Lines, Mdina and Fort
Tign) lacked such facilities and continued to store
their complement of powder inside casemates
within their ramparts. At the time of the Knights,
the various batteries of guns on the ramparts of
the harbour forts lacked expense magazines
(magazines des batteries). Such features were only
added in the course of the early nineteenth century
by the British military. These generally held small
quantities of powder required to fire the guns and
mortars as well as all the accoutrements needed to
work the weapons. The term was also applied to the
storage areas erected to service field gun batteries.
Magasins poudre :Dans les Place de guerre,
ils se construisent ordinairement dans le centre
des bastions vuides, pour etre plis isols, & pour
etre mieux labri de feu: quelquefois on les place
au pied du rampart, le long des courtines, afin de
mnager le vuide des bastions pour y faire les
retranchemens ncessaires en cas dattaque. Les
magasins poudre doivent tre vots a lpruve de
la bombe. (G. le Blond - 1762)
Magazines poudre des batteries: Dans le
voisinage des batteries de canons & de mortiers, on
partique de petits endroits o lon met de la poudre
36
pour le service de ces batteries: on couvre ces

endroits des claies, au dautre chose, pour les metre
labris du feu. Cest ce quon apepelle les petits
magasins de la batteries. Outre ceux-ci, il y a un
endroit plus loigne & moins porte de la batterie,
o lon tiennt une plus grande quantit de poudre,
cest le grand magasin. (G. le Blond - 1762)
Central reserve depots

By 1758, all the supply of the Orders gunpowder,
apart from that for set aside for naval use, is
recorded as being stored at Cottonera, which then,
unlike now, was still a vast esplanade. At the time,
this vast span of terrain was still a relatively barren
tract of land devoid of any dwellings or hamlets and,
therefore, provided the perfect setting for the safe
storage of vast quantities of explosive materials.
Most military planners in the eighteenth century had
realized the necessity for gunpowder magazines
to be located away from built-up areas, whether
civilian or military, as a basic safety precaution. In
Malta, the concept was first laid down by the French
military mission headed by Brig. Rene Jacob de
Tign in 1715 when they proposed to build two
large depositories on St Clement Bastion and St
James Bastion respectively. The actual date of the
construction of these two magazines, however, is
still not established.
Another early scheme for the Cottonera enceinte,
proposed for by Brig. Jacob de Tign, in 1717,
shows instead, three small magazines ordinaires
on St James Bastion, St Clement Bastion, and St
John Bastion respectively. These three structures,
however, were not built and the Order seems
to have gone ahead with the building of the two
large stores instead. The magazine on St James
Bastion appears as completed on a plan dated
1745. This structure has fortunately survived but
the one which was built on St Clement Bastion was
demolished and replaced by a British nineteenthcentury retrenchment. Its details, however, can
be seen on a set of two large but undated, plans,
entitled magazino a polvere coperto alla leggera
(see opposite page). The drawings show that the
magazine was designed to house a staggering
2,340 barrels of gunpowder laid out in six double
rows, that is about 234,000 lbs of gunpowder in
100lb containers.
The storage of huge quantities of gunpowder
in large and massive magazines, although at
times necessary, was nevertheless always a very
precarious and dangerous undertaking. Military
planners were well aware of the risks and often
advised that a grande Magazzino da polvere un
ospite pericoloso, anzi un nemico interno molto pi
fiero, molto pi formidable, di qualunque nemico
esteriore: perche al improvise, ed in un solo istante
puo produrre tali Danni, e cosi vaste rovine, qual un
avversario esterno tampoco in un anno produrre ne
potrebbe.
A second plan proposal for the

construction of a large general
magazine coperto alla leggiera
intended to be built on St Clement
Bastion. (Image source: Courtesy
of the National Library of Malta).
37
Authors graphic cut-away reconstruction of the

general gunpowder magazine which was built on
both St James Bastion and St Clement Bastion, on
the Cottonera Lines.
Indeed, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

were to witness a series of tragic disasters
involving the explosion of various gunpowder
stores throughout Europe. In 1654, for instance,
one of the magazines in the city of Delft, Holland,
exploded and devastated a large part of the city.
At the time of the explosion, the magazine, known
as the Secreet van Hollandt, large parts of which
were underground, contained some 90,000 lbs
gunpowder. The force of the blast was so great
that most houses in the immediate vicinity were
destroyed and many buildings throughout the city
were damaged, including two major churches.
The number of people killed was in the hundreds
and among the casualties was one of Delfts most
renowned painters, Carel Fabritius. In 1717, the
explosion of a magazine in the city of Belgrade
left some 5,000 casualties, whilst the explosion of
the magasin de poudre of Chateau de Grenelle,
near Paris, in 1794, involving some 65,000 lbs
of gunpowder, left more than a 1,000 dead.
38
Earlier in 1748, in Savona, Italy, an explosion of

a powder store, caused by lightning, demolished
more than 200 houses. The danger posed by
lightning to gunpowder in storage was again amply
demonstrated in August 1769, when lightning
struck the church of St Nazaire in Brescia, Italy,
where 207,000 lbs of polvere had been housed for
safekeeping, resulting in an explosion that killed
about 300 people, wounded another 500 and
destroyed about 190 edifices. In Malta, the threat
posed by lightning was well demonstrated in the
course of a thunderstorm in 1662, which hit an
echaugette on one of the Valletta counterguards,
resulting in a great explosion which, fortunately for
the Maltese, caused no casualties and little material
damage.
There was little that the Knights and their military
engineers could effectively do to counter this natural
threat. However, by the end of eighteenth century,
owing to the a growing understanding of electricity,
many countries began to equip structures with
The good practice of placing stocks of gunpowder

safely out of reach of the main urban areas,
nonetheless, also had its drawbacks. In 1758, a
specially set-up commission observed that the
gunpowder at Cottonera was situated too far away
to be of any use in an emergency, in luogo da
non poter servire in caso improviso and advised,
instead, that more use be made of il Magazeno
del Forte Manoel, che alla prova di bomba
sotto un custodia sicura e pi portata della Citt
Valletta che quelli della Cottonera. It was also
recommended to stock up i magazeni polvere
dei rivellini de Porta Reale nei quali si trovano tutti
li vantaggi [e] communicazione della citt while
those within the city, on the other hand, particularly
inside the cavaliers were to be left empty because
of the danger ( causa del pericolo) they posed to
their urban surroundings. Ever since 1634, when it
accidentally blew up, killing 22 people and seriously
damaging the nearby Jesuits college and church,
the main powder factory, too, was located in the
large stretch of barren ground enveloped within the
Floriana enceinte (later known as the Ospizio).
Occasionally, unlikely places such as vaulted
communications passages, casemates, or
countermine tunnels within the ramparts were
also put to use as improvised gunpowder stores
(expense magazines in later 19th century terminology).
Safety measures
Gunpowder magazines were generally cordoned off
with a high wall known as a garde de feu so as to
prevent unauthorized personnel and civilians from
getting too close to the place.
The ground within the walled enclosure was sloped
outwards to drain rain water away from the base of
the walls of the magazines. The enclosure was also
kept free of vegetation and trees:
La cour qui spare la magasin poudre du mur de
clture nayant dautre but que disoler le magasin
et den dfender les approaches, on doit donner au
sol beaucoup de pent du dedans au dehors, afin
dloigner les eaux des maconneries du magasin.
Lordonnance de 1768 (titre XXXV, art.9) defend

de cultivar les cours des magasins en jardins, ou
dy planter des arbres. On assurera lexcution de
cette disposition en composant le sol des cours,
un metre de profondeur, de dbris et de gravois bien
dams.
As a rule, the magazines were guarded round
the clock and, to this end, a few were fitted with
guardhouses, or corpi di guardia. It seems,
however, that the same lassitude which had crept
into the administration of the armouries by the mideighteenth century had also found its way into the
running of the gunpowder magazines.
An insight into this situation is provided by a
report, found in the orders records, entitled De
disordini, che succedero a torno de Magazzini,
dove si conserva la polvere, posti nel recinto della
Fortificazione Cottonera which draws attention
to the utter disregard for safety, that seems to
have prevailed at the Cottonera polverista in
1741. From this document we learn that Successe
piu volte, che quelle povera gente chabita per
decreto dellEm. Vra. E suoi predecessori nelli
Contraforti, corpi di Guardia, e casematte della detta
Fort[ificazione], accesero fuochi cosi di giorno come
di notte in luoghi poco lontani dalli detti Magazzini,
successe anche alcuni anni sono che un Deliquente
proseguito dalla Giustizia ai era rifugiato nel primo
recinto dun delli detti Magazzini, dove aveva potuto
entrare, senza esser scoverto, e si accendeva
continuamente del fuoco; Parimente successe e
succede ogni giorno, che molte persone, che vanno
a cacciare sbaranno senza incorrere pena veruna,
intono de Magazzini, anch in tempo, che questi
si trovano aperti per prendere aria, e si cava da
medesimi la polvere per farla seccare.
Questi diversi inconvenienti non possero, che
provedere qualche giorno una disgrazi, di cui puol
dirsi, che questIsola e stata preservat sin oggi
per grazzia speciale del Cielo ... di stabilire un
Corpo di Guardia di dodici Soldati sotto il Comando
dun Caporale ed un Sergente per invigilare alla
sicurezza di detti Magazzini . Questo distaccamento
potrebbe cavarsi dalle quattro Compagnie delle
Galere .
The ease which the public could gain access to this
magazine and its supply of powder on those days
when this was laid out to dry resulting largely
form the absence of adequate security measures or
simply the posting of a sentinel was truly alarming.
Eventually the corpo di guardia of the Polverista di
Rocca Tagliata in Cottonera, which stood next to the
nearby powder store, was supplied with soldiers.
A corporal and three soldiers from this station,
however, were also detailed to guard the gate of the
Cortina di detta Roccatagliata as part of their duties,
to the detriment of the security of the magazine!
The situation concerning the storage of gunpowder
in certain magazines appears to have grown so
intolerable by 1756 that an official inquiry was held
39
lightning conductors. As a matter of fact, by the early

1800s, all magasins de poudre in France (some 359
in 1824) were equipped with paratonnerres (lightning
conductors). None of those which had been built in
Hospitaller Malta, however, seem to have been fitted
with such features by 1798. Indeed, British military
engineers were surprised to see that the doors
of the magazines in Malta were actually covered
in iron and wandered how these had survived
and were never hit by lightning. Eventually, the
British military would go on to provide many of the
existing magazines, as well as the ones which they
constructed anew, with copper lightning conductors
and some of these can still be found in situ, such as that at
St Michaels Counterguard, Valletta (see page 69).
Above, View of the flank of DHomedes Bastion, at Fort St

Angelo, prior to its restoration in the 1990s, showing the internal
vault of the two magazines which were used for the storage of
gunpowder throughout the eighteenth century (Image source:
to investigate the many abuses that had crept in,

particularly in the clandestine ma libero traffico delle
Polveri della Religione con pericolo grandissimo
delle Citt, e del Porto, con interesse gravissimo del
Com Tesoro and to examine how both locals and
foreigners (non ostante le ordinanze de bandi)
had acquired la facolt di acquistare tal genere di
munizione in pregiudizio del Governo per farne un
uso pernicioso.
On investigation, it transpired that large quantities of
gunpowder were being pilfered from the magazines
of the galleys or exchanged for ones of inferior
quality. These magazines were situated inside
DHomedes Bastion at Fort St Angelo, and their
keys, left in the hands of the Capi Mastri Artiglieri
who, together with their dependents, had managed
to acquire unrestricted access to the place; che
secondo le occorrenze cavano da se stessi o per
mezzi delle loro mogli, figli e dipendenti in tutte le
ore del giorno .. ritengono in poter loro le chiavi
di detto magazeno. Worse still, this magazine
was situated beneath another one in which was
conserved a much larger quantity of powder serving
the squadron of the Orders ship-of-the-lines.
As if these irregularities were not serious enough,
other worrying abuses were uncovered. Particularly
disconcerting was the libert che anno i bastimenti
dintrodurre in questo dominio la polvere, parte della
quale si rispone in Castel St Angelo per diposito
volontario de Capitani, altra si riserva in luoghi
incogniti al Governo ma certamente nelle case
di questa citt, o Magazzeni delle Marine. That
40
gunpowder was being illegally kept inside private

houses is best illustrated by the tragic explosion,
on the night of 24 June 1756, of a large tenement
house near the Auberge de Castille and Leon in
Valletta, which resulted in the death of many of the
residents. The cause of the tragedy was a certain
Rev. Giovanni Mifsud, nicknamed ta suffarelli, an
amateur fireworks manufacturer who operated from
his room with utter disregard for the safety of others.
Following the 1756 incident, however, the private
possession of gunpowder was strictly prohibited
in casa propria, ne altrove except for una piccola
quantit corrispondente alluso di un cacciatore. To
this end, fixed places were established in Valletta,
Gozo, and in tre luoghi di questa Isola, cio nella
Citt Notabile, in Casal Lia e nella Gudia where
tre persone stabilite con autorit could legally
sell gunpowder in small quantities and solely for
hunting purposes. These distributors, in turn, were
only authorized to purchase their own stocks from
officially approved sources.
The 1756 Regolamenti

The report drawn up on this occasion was to
lead towards a series of new regulations, the
Regolamenti per la Custodia della Polvere, that
were designed, above all, to ensure a greater
central control over gunpowder resources and
reduce the facility with which unauthorized persons
could sell, exchange, and alter the quality of
gunpowder. Immediately, the no longer acceptable
practice whereby various Capi Maestri retained the
keys to the Santa Barbara in each fortified work was
revoked and a stricter regime implemented. In all
the fortifications, as a result, there were to be only
two keys to the powder stores, one of which was to
be held by the Governatore o suo luogotente and
the other by the Capomastro del castello after a

record was made of the esatto conto delli scartucci
presi.
The main points of the Regolamento per la Custodia
della Polvere read as follows:
1. Che dovendosi fabricare un nuovo Magazeno
il sito piu adatto ci sembra quello della Punta di
Ras Kanzir sotto il Corradino da noi esaminato
con diligenza e ritrovato assai commodo per
imbarcare, e sbarcare le polveri delle due squadre,
e di qualunque altro bastimento, immune di pi per
la vantaggiosa sua situazione di poter cagionare
un disgraziato incendio alcun danno alle Citt e al
Porto.
2. Che nel sudetto Magazeno si fanno diversi
riparimenti per conservare la Polvere di
ciuascheduna Galera e Vassello, siccome ancora
un luogo sufficiente per conservare la Polvere dei
Particolari.
3. Che nella consegna della Polvere da farsi alli
Vapi Maestri delle Galere assista sempre un
Commissario della Polvere, la prova della quale si
dovr fare ordinamente nellatto di ogni consegna.
4. Che similmente nel rimettere al ritorno de viaggi
la Polvere nel rispettivo ripartimento accertera
listesso Commissario, ricevendola dai Capi Maestri
con le medesimi prove, per conoscere si confronta
nella qualit, e con la nota del consumo, per aver la
prova della quantit.
5. Che le Chiavi esteriori siano tutte conservate in
Tesoro lasciando alli capi Maestri delle Galere la
chiave del ripartimenti corrispondenti alla rispettiva
galera.
6. Che il Commissario della V. Cong. Delle Galere
nominato per assitere alla Polvere della Squadra
abbia lIncarico del Magazeno del deposito
de Particolari; Onde ricercato di ricevere o di
consegnare med.mi li di loro Polvere. ... etc
Che nelli Castelii di questa Citta si conservi la
solita quantita di Polvere ne luoghi a questo effetto
destinati sotto due Chiavi diversi una de quali dovra
esser conservata dal Governatore, o suo Luog.te,
laltra dal Capo Maestro del castello ... lasciarei
mano del Sargente, che sar in obbligo al di loro
ritorno dare esatto conto delli scartucci presi dal
capo Maestro per qualche impensato accidente
succedito.
11. Che Nessuno ardisca tenere in casa propria, ne
altrove Polvere pur che non si una piccola quantit
corrispondente alluso di un Cacciatore.
12. Che percio oltre un luogo fisso nella Citt e altri
nel Gozzo, in tre luoghi di questa Isola, cioe nella
Citt Notabile, In Casal Lia, e nella Gudia da noi noi
creduti i pi propij per la commodit della campagna
vi siano tre persone stabilite con autorit di V.E.
Manuscript map of the inner reaches of the Grand Harbour,

showing the location of the gunpowder magazine established
by Grand Master Pinto de Fonseca at Ras anir, at the foot of
the Corradino heights. (Image source: Courtesy of the National
Library of Malta).
per vendere Polvere per uso di Caccia in poca

quantit, i quali venditori siino di pi con special
Rescritto di V. E. Abilitati a poterla comprare da chi
avr lautorit di venderla per la totale inteligenza e
coguizione del Governo di tutto cio, che risguardia la
materia della Polvere ......
15. Che a tutti gli Capi Maestri, Artiglieri,
Bombardieri delle Galere, Navi, Castelli & Torri
in vigor di Bando di V.E. si facci una rigorosa
proibizione di poter sotto qualsivoglia pretesto, o
colre vendere a chicche sia Polvere a medesimi
consegnata per servizio delle, Squadre, Fortezze,
e Torri di queste Isole, o in altra maniera mutarla o
accomodarla sotto pena della perdit dellufficio.
Curiously, the 800 scudi worth of powder then found
missing from the magazines in Fort St Angelo were
to be detracted from the salary of the Capo Mastro
di St Angelo (fu sequestrate la meta del suo salario
ma potra non estingere, per quanto sara lunga la
di lui vita intieramente il debito sudetto). In other
times, he would surely have found himself rowing
the oars of the Orders galleys!
The primary outcome of the new regulations was
the construction of a new magazzeno Generale
per le Polveri delle Marine. This new magazine
was erected on a small promontory known as Ras
anir, situated deep within the Grand harbour
enclave, immediately beneath the Corradino
41
It is not clear if all of the gunpowder magazines

were provided with corpi di guardia. Some, such
as the Polverista di Rocca Tagliata in Cottonera
mentioned earlier, came to be guarded round the
clock. The detachment of soldiers posted at this
guardhouse, which was situated a canto della
gran polverista had to provide a corporal and
three soldiers to man the piccolo corpo di guardia
dabasso, avanti la porta della Cortina di detta
Roccatagliata.
Marble plaque commemorating the construction of the Ras

anir gunpowder magazine in 1756. (Image source: Authors
heights, ... Punta di Ras Kanzir sotto il Corradino

assai comodoso per imbarcare e sbarcare le
polveri delle due squadre immune di pi per la
vantaggiosa sua situazione di poter cagionare con
un disgraziato incendio alcun danno alla citt e al
porto. The chosen location was difficult to reach by
land but it was set outside the defensive perimeter
of the fortifications, in open country and, therefore,
had no military value in the event of a siege, since
the building, although commanded by the guns on
the fortifications of Floriana and Senglea Point, was
not fortified but simply surrounded by a boundary
wall. Later in the late nineteenth century, the British
military sought to enclose the area within a massive
polygonal-style entrenchment and protected the
magazine with a defensive wall fitted with musketry
loopholes.
The Ras anir magazine was constructed in 1756
and comprised of two rectangular buildings joined
laterally and enveloped within a protective boundary
wall. A plaque at the entrance to the structure reads
as follows:
QUESTO EDIFICIO
FU COSTRUITO NEL 1756
PER CONSERVARE IN ESSO
LA POLVERE DELLE NAVI
DELLA SACRA RELIGIONE
E QUELLA DEI PARTICOLARI
CHE PRIMA SI DEPONEVA
NEL CASTELLO SANTANGELO
The interior of the magazine was divided into

separate compartments (riparimenti) set aside for
the storage of different vessels. The keys to the
external doors of the establishment were deposited
in the treasury lasciando alli Capi Maestri delle
Galere la Chiave del riparimento corrispondente
alla rispettiva galera. Special commissioners were
appointed to register the quantity and quality of
powder whenever deposited or removed.
42
No regulations for the procedures adopted inside

Knights powder magazines have yet come to
light. There does not seem to have been any
concept of the shifting lobby as employed in later
British nineteenth-century magazines. Officers
and soldiers, for example, were prohibited from
taking their firearms and swords inside the storage
areas and nobody was allowed to walk barefoot,
Personne ne doit entrer dans le magasin sil na
des sandales ou sil nest dchauss; les officers &
les soldats doivent laisser en dehors leurs armes
& les cannes. French military manuals of the late
eighteenth century advised on the need for the
magazine interiors to be swept clean and washed
with water : Arroser de temps en temps le plancher,
& le balayer, pour en ter les pierres, les metaux, e
tout ce qui peut produire du feu par le choc.
Similar instructions may have been enforced
locally, and it is surely not just a matter of luck that
throughout all the period in which these magazines
were built and used in the course of the eighteenth
century under the Knights, there is not one recorded
incident of an explosion having occurred at any
of the magazines. This is in marked contrast with
the early British period when the island witnessed
some very devastating and tragic incidents, such as
those which occurred at Birgu in 1806 and at Fort
Ricasoli during the Froberg mutiny in 1807; that
at Birgu was accompanied by a considerable loss
of life (civilian and military) following the explosion
of a magazine filled to capacity with some 40,000
lbs of gunpowder stored in 370 barrels, as well as
1600 shells and grenades. Some 493 individuals
also lost property as a result of the explosion. The
firing of the magazine at Fort Ricasoli by mutineers,
although not an accident, resulted in no loss of life
but led to the demolition of a considerable part of
St Dominic Dem-Bastion. Plans of the demolished
ramparts prepared by Royal Engineers shortly after
the incident clearly show the extent of the damage
caused by the explosion. The bastion was only
partially reconstructed and the casemates were
omitted. Instead, the Royal engineers erected a
Opposite page, Various views of the Ras anir magazine and

its protective enclosure. The wall with musketry loopholes to
the right of the enclosure, grafted onto its walls, forms part of
the Corradino defensive line, built by the British military in 1872.
This defensive wall was meant also to anchor the harbour end
of the defensive perimeter and at the same time protect the
magazine. (Images source: Authors private collection).
43
44
View of the Ras anir magazine compound as seen from

the Corradino heights to the south. It appears that the roofs
of the two main blocks are not original and appear to have
been rebuilt during the nineteenth century, as they are very
similar to the Rinella Bay magazine built by the British later
in the century. The space between the boundary wall and the
magazines was also roofed over. No Hospitaller-period plans
of the edifice have yet come to light. A detail from a plan by
Col. Dickens, dated 1806, (inset, bottom right) tends to imply
a slightly different internal configuration of the stores. (Images
45
small Vauban-style magazine (without counterforts

as was there custom) a short distance to the rear of
the land front and this was eventually augmented by
another larger structure which was erected on No. 3
Bastion (see pages 70-1). Eventually, this magazine
as encased, on its exposed seaward sides, within
a large earthen massif designed to shield it from
naval bombardment. A similar solution was adopted
by the Royal Engineers for the Pinto magazine on
Caphucin Bastion. In the latter case, however, the
earth was revetted in masonry.
Vallettas Magasins a Poudre

Of a slightly different category, were the two
gunpowder magazines which were built inside
the fortified city of Valletta. These two structures,
although built in the form of Vauban-style
magazines, were not, however, erected on open
bastions nor sited away from the built up areas of
the city, but were actually embedded within sections
of the Valletta fortifications in close proximity to the
Quarters of the
Capo Mastro in
charge of the
artillery on the
bastion
Entrance to the
magazine
Mur de scurit
These two pages, Authors

graphic reconstructions of the
gunpowder magazine which was
built with the masonry shell of
Vendme Bastion, Valletta.
Cutaway showing interior of vaulted storage

area of magazine
Lateral counterforts
with arched openings
(in the form of flying
buttresses)to enable for
a continuous passage
around the magazine
Rear pignon
Secure courtyard used

for drying out the gunpowder barrels
46
were built early during the reign of Grand Master

Pinto de Fonseca, within a few years of each other,
the first in 1745, and the other (St John Cavalier)
in 1748, both probably designed by the resident
engineer Francesco Marandon.
Sixteenth century
water cisterns
Counterscarp of the
ditch of Fort St Elmo
The two structures were intended to serve

as general magazines and were designed to
service the requirements of the guns arming the
neighbouring bastions and ramparts. British military
engineers, in the nineteenth century, calculated
that the Vendme magazine alone could hold up
to 1,520 barrels of gunpowder. Indeed, these two
stores were positioned on opposites sides of the
enceinte; that in St John Cavalier was intended
to serve the land front fortifications while the
one in Vendme Bastion serviced the
northern part of the enceinte facing the
entrances to the Grand Harbour
and Marsamxett. In both
instance, the magazines
were built down into
the then-existing
ramparts. This
involved the
excavation
of the terreplein
within the ramparts in
order to create cavities
large enough to accommodate
and absorb the new structures.
In the case of Vendme Bastion, this
entailed the demolition of a large part
of the seventeenth-century artillery platform
itself but this work of fortification, which dated
back to around 1614, had already lost most of its
front line defensive value once the northern tip
of the peninsula had been enveloped by a new
bastioned enceinte. The magazine in St John
47
Below and right, Authors graphic reconstructions of the gunpowder

magazine built by the knights within part of the Vendme Bastion,
in 1745. Although commonly referred to as a bastion, this
structure was technically a raised artillery platform
which was built in 1614 to enable the garrison
of Valletta to dominate the Dragut
promontory across the mouth
of Marsamxett Harbour. With
the building of the Caraffa
enceinte in the late 1600s,
however, the position lost its
frontline importance and the
opportunity was taken in 1745
to convert it into a magazine.
This was eventually turned
into an armoury by the British
military in the 1850s and is
currently used as a War
town houses, namely within Vendme Bastion near
Museum.
Fort St Elmo, and inside St John Cavalier. Both
48
Plan of Vendme Bastion, Valletta, showing a

proposal for the construction of a Vauban-type
gunpowder magazine built prova di bomba (i.e.,
heavily vaulted). Note that the structure has only
lateral events and none on the front and rear
pignons. (Image source: Courtesy of the National
Library of Malta). The counterforts are different
from the types found on other magazines in that
they are built in the form of flying buttresses, so as
to ensure an open passage all the way around the
exterior of the magazine.
49
Above, View of Vendme

Bastion and its gunpowder
magazine in its current state.
The large arched opening
(shown blocked up) in the
rear pignon dates from the
British period. (Images source:
Plan, and front and side

elevations for a proposed
gunpowder magazine that was
built on St John Cavalier, Valletta.
An inscription on the same
magazine records that this was
built in 1748. (Image source:
Courtesy of the National Library
of Malta).
50
the surrounding edifices. The largest of the two

was the magazeno di polvere in Vendme Bastion.
Although commonly referred to as a bastion, this
rampart was technically a raised artillery platform
which was built in 1614 to enable the garrison of
Valletta to dominate the Dragut promontory across
the mouth of Marsamxett Harbour. With the building
of the Caraffa enceinte in the late 1600s, however,
the position lost its frontline importance and the
opportunity was taken in 1745 to convert it into a
storage space. This magazine was then eventually
converted into an armoury by the British military in
1855 and is currently used as a War Museum.
The Vendme magazine itself was the largest of the
Vauban-style structures to be built in the Maltese
islands it has twelve lateral counterforts, six on
each side. These counterforts are also unusual
and different from those employed at Fort Manoel
51
Cavalier likewise involved a significant excavation

within the terrace platform. It is not clear why these
particular magazines were not built on top of the
ramparts themselves, in the prescribed manner
already employed at Fort Manoel. There was ample
space around the Valletta enceinte where such
structures could have been easily accommodated,
particularly within the four large counterguards and
inside the Caraffa enceinte. The primary reason
seems to have revolved around the need to shelter
the magazines within the protective thickness of
the ramparts in order to shield them from direct
bombardment. Unlike ordinary casemates, however,
which would have likewise provide adequate
protection, the roofs of these built-in magazines
were not weighed down by the mass of ramparts
terreplein and thus would have allowed the force
of any accidental explosion to be directed upwards
and not laterally, thereby causing less damage to
This page, Graphic

reconstructions and
photograph of the
details of the bombproof
powder magazine which
was built on St John
Cavalier, Valletta. This
was constructed in 1748,
as can be seen from the
date inscribed below the
escutcheon (left) which
once held the coats of
arms of Grand Master
Pinto de Fonseca and
the Order. The plaque
reads MAGAZZIN A
POLVER[E] A PROVA
DI BOMBA. The coat
of arms are said to have
been hacked away during
the French occupation of
Malta in 1798-1800.
Aeration passage
Events
Raised floor
supported on
arches
Entrance to cavalier
on the rear face of
the structure
52
or at the Capuchin Bastion in Floriana in that they

had arched openings cut into them to enable a
continuous passage around the magazine. They
were also attached to the lateral walls and ramparts
enveloping the magazine, thereby transferring part
of the weight of the vaulted ceiling of the magazine
onto the adjoining structures.
The magazine built into St John Cavalier, on the
other hand, was smaller and lacked any such
counterforts. It was built into the upper part of the
gorge of the cavalier. Its particular features were
a very high raised floor and lateral passageways,
similar to the light-passages found in later
nineteenth-century magazines but in this case
53
This page, Authors graphic reconstructions and photograph of

the details of the bombproof powder magazine built inside St
John Cavalier, Valletta. The photograph on the right shows the
inner faade opening onto the ramp leading up to the terrace
platform of the cavalier. Note the stone hold-fasts for a lightning
conductor (British period) Bottom right, Details of the rear
faade of the cavalier showing the events that serve the lateral
air passages.
Plan, and front and side

elevations, dated 12 April
1760, for a proposed gunpowder magazine that was
built on Guardian Angel
Bastion, at Fort Chambrai,
Gozo. (Image source:
Courtesy of the National
Library of Malta).
54
intended only to allow for the circulation of air

through the events opening up into them and then
out through two other slits cut into the rear face of
the cavalier. This magazine, as stated earlier, was
built in 1748. A small stone plaque, fixed beneath a
stone escutcheon that once bore the coat of arms
of Grand Master Pinto is still to be found on the
inner face of the magazine overlooking the ramp
leading up to the terrace platform of the cavalier.
The wording on the magazine reads as follows:
MAGAZZIN A POLVER / A PROVA DI BOMBA
/1748.
The last of the gunpowder magazines to be built by
the Knights was erected at Fort Chambrai in Gozo
around 1760. Work on this last major Hospitaller
fortress began around the year 1749 and was
largely made possible with financial assistance from
the Bailli de Chambrai. The plan of the fortress,
however, had been drawn up as early as the 1720s
under the direction of the French military engineer,
Brig. Ren Jacob de Tign. The early plans of the
fort show a fortress proposed to be fitted with two
gunpowder magazines, both rectangular in plan,
fitted with counterforts and secured within walled
enclosures. The largest of these was to be located
on the eastern flank of the enceinte overlooking
Marr harbour, and the smaller one, on the western
extremity overlooking ix-Xatt l-Amar. The layout of
the enceinte along the flanks of the city, however,
was eventually rethought by the Orders military
engineers following consultations with foreign
Authors graphic reconstruction of the
gunpowder magazine which was erected
on Guardian Angel Bastion, at Fort
Chambrai, in Gozo, as illustrated in
the 1760 plan, left. Note the raised
stone floor of the magazine. This
was ventilated by a number of
shall shafts (not show in original
drawing proposal)which were
introduced to prevent rising
damp from getting to the
barrels. The magazines
interior was roughly four
metres at its widest.
Above, Top, De
Palmeaus plan
of Fort Chambrai,
showing the location
of the first two gunpowder
magazines proposed to be installed
inside the fortified city. Above, middle,
Plan of Fort Chambrai showing a Vaubanstyle magazine similar to that depicted on the
Palmeaus plan. Although drawn in red, this magazine
was never built. Indeed the plan of this part of the forts
enceinte was modified extensively after consultation
with foreign military experts. (Image source: Courtesy of
the National Library of Malta).
55
Plan, for a proposed mur de scurit (and other finishes to

the bastion) designed to close off the gorge of Guardian
Angel Bastion and its gunpowder magazine, Fort
Chambrai, Gozo. (Image source: Courtesy of the National
Library of Malta). Top, inset, View of the enclosure created
by the boundary wall. (Image source: Authors private
collection).
56
experts and the two magazines were both omitted

from the final plan. Instead, the fortress was fitted
with a smaller oval-plan gunpowder magazine
capped with a conical roof and located on a
redesigned bastion.
This structure is the only one of its kind to have
been built in the Maltese islands and appears to
have been first proposed in the early decades of
the 1700s when it was planned to erect it inside
a rectangular redoubt that was proposed to be
constructed on the Isoletto (Manoel Island) as part
of the fortifications defending the approaches to the
main fortress in the scheme (see sectional elevation
of redoubt and magazine on page 62 below).
Neither the redoubt, nor its magazines were ever
Right, Authors graphic reconstruction
of Fort Chambrais gunpowder
magazine with its mur de scurit.
The entrance is on the side.
Above, top, Close-up view of Fort
Chambrais magazine, showing the
various events ventilating the interior.
The smaller ones at the bottom
aerated the space beneath the raised
floor inside the magazine. Note the
heavily-inclined paved surface around
the polverista. This was meant to ensure
the rapid drainage of rainwater accumulating
on the higher ground to the rear of the bastion.
To this end, a large culvert was cut into the foot of
the boundary wall (above). (Images source: Authors
57
constructed since only the fort (i.e. Fort Manoel) was

built.
This magazines relatively small dimensions,
coupled with its compact and solid design, made
it highly resistant to bombardment, comparable in
many ways to later nineteenth-century expense
magazines which were erected directly on the
ramparts and made to double up as traverses.
The builders of the polveriera at Fort Chambrai were
also concerned about rainwater collecting around
the structure, given the nature of the site and the
tiered form of the bastion. The Orders engineer
invested significant efforts to ensure that the bastion
and its adjoining areas could be drained rapidly
from run-off rainwater. This they achieved by sloping
the platform around the bastion to ensure that all
rainwater was quickly channelled away from the
magazine and directed towards large culverts cut
within the ramparts, designed to expel the water out
of the fortress into the surrounding fields. Although
the temperate climate of the Maltese islands meant
Below, View of the old gunpowder magazine situated on St

John Demi-bastion, at the Gozo Citadel. Note the two events
and the central doorway. This building was grafted directly onto
the sloping walls of the adjoining ramparts. The roof of the
structure was supported on diaphragm arches (above). (Images
58
that the amount of rainfall was generally limited,

occasional heavy torrential showers generally
created considerable damage to buildings and
structures not equipped with adequate drainage
arrangements that could deal with the expulsion of
large volumes of water.
It is not clear why the Knights chose to employ
such a design for Fort Chambrai, as clearly, this
magazine was too small to serve a large fortress.
The oldest of these was that situated near the rockhewn communication passage which leads down
from the bastion at the foot of St John Cavalier to
the low battery. This is mentioned in detail in one of
Mederico Blondels reports following the earthquake
of 1693. Its actually date of construction, however,
is unknown although it cannot predate the 1620s.
Structurally, it consists of a simple rectangular
edifice, with flat roof supported on diaphragm
arches, grafted onto the ramparts to its rear. This
was a simple and ordinary structure, devoid of
windows and perhaps indicative the early storage
arrangements that characterized the pre-eighteenth
century period. Even its two events, set high up in
the wall, appear to conform to the patterns found on
later eighteenth century magazines and, therefore,
may have been added later.
eventually led to the two new magazines erected in

1701. These were placed on top of the two existing
cavaliers. Unfortunately, only one of the two 1701
magazines has actually survived, situated on the
terrace platform of St John Cavalier, since the one
which once stood on St Martin cavalier disappeared
when part of this cavalier collapsed sometime
around the late nineteenth century. Again, judging
by the form of the structure now standing on St John
Cavalier, these two polveriste were small simple
rooms lacking any of the dedicated features that
came to define magazine construction after the
arrival of French military engineers in the Maltese
islands in 1715.
Blondels reports also reveal that the Citadel

had a severe lack of storage facilities by the late
1600s, indicating that this old store was insufficient
to house the required powder. His call for the
construction of new structures - farne magazeni e
piazze darmi, che in quel castello affatto mancano
Above, View of the entrance to

the old gunpowder magazine
situated on St John DemiBastion, at the
Gozo Citadel.
Left, Authors graphic
illustration explaining the
simple layout and construction
of the Citadels magazine The
structure is shielded by a thick
traverse-like wall but is then
compromised by a cutting
with low en barbette parapet
meant to provide flanking fire
along the long side of the
bastion. Blondels remark that
the magazine had more than
one internal partition (con
pi porte luna avanti laltra)
may seem to suggest that the
structure could have been
slightly larger than the present
edifice which could date to the
18th century or early British
period, as indeed suggested
by the two events.
59
The reason may lie in the fact that the new fortress
never really acquired any military importance and
continued to rely upon the logistical arrangements
then in place at the Cittadella. As a matter of
fact, by the mid-eighteenth century the old landlocked Cittadella had acquired three gunpowder
magazines, the last two of which were erected
around 1701 according to Can. Gian Pietro
Frangisco Agius de Soldanis:tre polveriste .. Luna
antica che viene vicino la mina sotteranea da ove
si passa per il fortino, e le altre due nuovamente
fabricate nellanno 1701 sopra detti torioni, e
proveduti tutti di polvere bellica.
Front view of St John Cavalier, Gozo Citadel, showing

the small gunpowder magazine erected on the roof
on the cavalier in 1701. Bottom. Another view of the
magazine on St John Cavalier, as seen from the
nearby church spire. (Images source: Authors private
collection).
60
The maintenance of gunpowder magazines

The Orders records show that, in most periods,
gunpowder magazines were inspected regularly by
the commander of artillery or his subordinates to
ensure that they remained capable of adequately
housing gunpowder in reasonably good conditions.
That this was not always the state of affairs,
however, is best illustrated by the recorded visit of
the resident military engineer Mederico Blondel to
the powder magazine of the citadel in Gozo, shortly
after the earthquake of 1693. Blondel found that
the roof (terrazzo) of the powder magazine had
caved in, essendo stata tre anni sono, sfrondata
da alcune pietre, cascati sopra, durante un grosso
temporale di pioggia. Evidently, with each rainfall,
the interior of the magazine flooded up (sallago
dentro) and because the room was sempre chiuso
con pi porte luna avanti laltra, e senza fenestre,
ne respiro veruno the internal conditions had
remained damp to the detriment of the powder. As
a result of this the tavolato, linfodera de muri, et i
barili became covered in mould (si muffano) and
the powder had mostly rotted away.
Blondel immediately ordered the repair of the
broken flagstones but also recommended that the
roof be covered with an added layer of packed
earth to ensure better water proofing, battere
in terrazzo con al quanto di turba il suo costiglietto
[roof supporting arches] dandogli pendio grande
allinfuori, per deviarne lacqua piovane. He also
ordered the uprooting and removal of all the malve
et alter herbe grandi which had taken root on
the roof of the magazine. As an added measure
to ensure the drying of the gunpowder, Blondel
advised that the barrels were be taken out daily from
inside the magazine, for at least a whole week, and
left to dry out in the sun, uscirne fuori i barili in
tempo del sol lione, e tenerli esposti al sole, con
guardia competente de bombardieri stessi, nellhore
del giorno pi calde; lasciando in tanto le porte del
magazzino spalancate, e cio per una settimana, o
pi, secondo sara giudicato. He also recommended
that the distance between the insulating panels
(infodera) and wooden floor (tavolato) and the damp
surfaces be increased and that a layer of charcoal
be laid beneath the floor.
Most engineers invested considerable energy to
make magazines waterproof. At Fort Chambrai, for
example, Francesco Marandon included adequate
provisions in the form of large culverts and sloped
paved flooring to drain away large volumes of
run-off rain water from the Bastione del Angelo
Custode on which the small conical polverista
was erected. These devices were so designed to
ensure that all the aque piovale diverging towards
the small magazine (owing to the nature of the
site) were comfortably channelled away leaving the
structure, itself raised on an aerated floor, practically
waterproof. One problem in this regard, however,
was inherent in the very design of the counterforts
employed in the Vauban- style magazines. Indeed,
Above, Two other views the small 1701 gunpowder magazine

standing on top of St. John Cavalier at the Gozo Citadel. (Images source: Authors private collection). Note the ramp leading
up to the terrace platform, which is accessed from a small
doorway in the gorge of the cavalier.
most French military engineers complained that

the re-entrant angles between the counterforts and
the side walls of the magazine, which were usually
shielded by the shadows cast by the counterforts,
tended to become very damp and also enabled
water to seep through, as did the top parts of the
counterforts:
Lassemblage des contreforts avec les pieds-droit
form des angles rentrans, dans lesquels lair et le
soleil pntrent difficilement; il sy engender une
humidit qui pourrit les murs, perce le magasin
et le gate .... Ces contreforts presentment encore
linconvnient de laisser penetrer leau dans leur
intrieur par leur sommet, ou par le ur junction
avec le pied-droit, ce qui est une nouvelle cause
dhumidit.
Vermin too, seem to have been a cause of concern.
An interesting entry found in the accounts of the
Reggimento di Malta, was the provision of a small
some of money to cover the expenses required
for maintaining a cat (Mantenimento di Gatto), a
practical counter-measure intended to help keep the
areas around the magazines free of rats!
61
Outworks, Coastal Towers, Redoubts and

Batteries
Another source of worry for the Orders
commanders of artillery were the supplies of
gunpowder which had to be kept, for tactical
purposes, in the various outer works of the main
fortress and even farther afield in the many coastal
batteries and towers spread around the islands
shores:
Il Comm. DellArtiglieria terra in tutti le batterie, e
ne luoghi piu convenevoli tutta quella quantita di
polvere ed ognaltro giudicato necessario per esser
pronto in caso dun colpo di mano de nemici e per
qualche accidente.
By the eighteenth century, the Maltas defences had
grown into a vast network of harbour fortifications
augmented by an island-wide system of coastal
defences. The harbour fortifications had evolved
into multiple lines of defences each with their own
detached series of outer works and opere avanzate,
all spreading out into the countryside. Many of these
detached works were situated many kilometres
away from the main deposits of gunpowder and
lacked any provisions for the storage of munitions.
The Orders records show that in such instances,
use was often made of the communication tunnels
and sally-ports for the storage of munitions. In
1758, for example, the tunnel or mina no. 582
alla dritta della mezzaluna inanti Porta Reale (St
Magdaleine Ravelin) was conceded to the Aiutante
della milizia Alberto Gatt per ponere la polvere.
Above, Nineteenth-century plan and sectional elevation of

the gunpowder magazine at Fort Tign. This appears to have
been located inside the casemate occupying the salient angle
formed by the left face and flank of the fort. Unfortunately, this
part of the fort was demolished during World War Two so that
the original details of the structure are now lost. It is not clear if
this casemate was also used for the storage of gunpowder until
1798. (Images source: Authors private collection).
Occasionally, however, some outer works were fitted

with their own specific storage rooms intended to
hold small supplies of gunpowder. The best example
of this is encountered in the small triangular room
which was built into the scarp musketry gallery that
was erected at the foot of the crowned-hornworks
of the Floriana enceinte in order to protect the
approaches from Marsa. The small storage room
was fitted into the gorge of the vaulted spur and

equipped with two small events (see page 63). This
structure was erected in the course of the early
eighteenth century under the influence of the French
military engineers. In many ways, however, this is
an exception to the rule since most outer works had
already been constructed by the time of the arrival
of the French military mission in 1715 and lacked
such dedicated features.
Below, Sectional elevation for a proposed redoubt on the

Isoletto ( dated around 1715-16 project not realized) showing
a conical magazine similar to the one that was eventually
erected at Fort Chambrai - see text. (Image source: Courtesy of
Another outer work which was designed with its own

gunpowder magazine, was likewise proposed by the
French military mission and was intended to form
part of a series of defence on the Isoletto inside
62
Marsamxett (later Manoel Island). Designed in the

form of rectangular redoubt it was to be fitted with
its own central magazine, conical in shape and not
much unlike the small magazine that was eventually
built at Fort Chambrai, in Gozo, later in the course
of the century (vide supra, page 55). This redoubt,
however, was never constructed as the Knights
chose instead to build a larger fort which they
named Fort Manoel.
In the eighteenth century, the coastal works of
fortification and their batteries of guns provided
the islands front line of defence against any
Above, Plan, and sectional elevation of the musketry spur

at Marsa shown in the photograph at top left. This unique
defensive outwork (top left) forms part of the escarpment of
the crowned-hornworks and contained what can perhaps be
described as the only example of an expense magazine built
during Hospitaller times in the Maltese islands (left, middle).
Most coastal works of fortifications had small rooms set aside
for storage, such as shown below in the plan of the blockhouse
of Westreme Battery at Melliea. St Pauls Bay Tower, left,
had an external Santa Barbara (the room adjoining the flight of
steps). (Image sources: plans; Courtesy of the National Library
of Malta: photographs; Authors private collection).
63
Above, St Julian Tower and Battery, showing the opening made

in the ground floor room of the tower made to provide a storage
area for the gun battery which was added to the tower in 1715.
(Image source: Courtesy of the National Library of Malta).
direct invasion. Many of these structures were

located in very remote areas that could not be
easily resupplied at short notice with the munitions
necessary for their defence. The problem largely
arose from the fact that throughout most of the
winter season many of these coastal works of
fortification, with a few exceptions, were simply
locked up and left unattended. Therefore, as a
safety precaution, their stocks of gunpowder had to
be transferred to the closest manned stations and
kept there until the opening of the next shipping
season when the defences would then be manned
and armed again.
Consequently, few of these coastal defensive
structures were actually provided with any adequate
facilities for the proper storage of gunpowder.
Generally, any room, where available, was set aside
for this purpose. Those batteries equipped with a
blockhouse would have one of their smaller lateral
rooms set aside for such a purpose, its windows
or embrasures unceremoniously blocked up with
masonry in order to render the space as safe and
secure as possible. Still, in winter, most of these
dispersed stocks of gunpowder would have had to
be transported for better safe keeping inside the
large Wignacourt towers, since these sentinels
were kept manned all year round with a permanent
garrison and generally contained ample interior
space to absorb the added supplies brought in from
the neighbouring outposts. Many of these towers
seem to have employed the upper rooms of their
corner turrets for such a purpose although one,
the Wignacourt Tower at St Pauls Bay, is known to
have had an external room which served as a Santa
Barbara, i.e., an artillery room, which seems to have
also doubled up as a store for gunpowder. Some
of the smaller De Redin and Lascaris watchtowers,
64
where fitted with coastal batteries in 1715, had

doors cut into the sloping walls of their lower floors
to enable the ground floor rooms to be converted
into storage areas in the manner illustrated in the
sectional elevation of St Julian Tower shown above.
Artillery stores
Various other munitions were held in artillery stores
apart from gunpowder. Inventory lists minutely
accounted for cannon shot, of iron and stone,
bombs, grenades and sacchetti di mitraglia. The
Orders military advisors always recommended
a healthy stock of munitions, as illustrated by the
list below, drawn up in the 1790s, which gives the
recommended quantities of munitions that were to
be kept in store in preparation of a siege.
palle di libri 24,
12,000
palle di libri 4,
20,000
palle di libri 2,
20,000
bombi di pollici 12,
11,000
bombi di pollici 8,
12,000
per gli obus di pollici 8,
8,000
granate di lib 6,
26,000
granate di lib 3,

3,000
granate a mano

8,000
That is, a total of 120,000 cannon shot and shells
together with a reserve stock of legna di ceppi for
900 gun carriages.
An entry in the Orders records also mentions a
provista di granate di cartone per servizio delle
galere. Added to these were vast quantities of
paper cartridges. These were kept in wooden boxes
and distributed to the various outlying fortresses and
depositories prior to military exercises or defence
preparations so that they could be then handed
out to the troops. In November 1770, for example,
Less economical were the mortar bombs which were

stuffed with around 16 lbs (7.25 kg) of gunpowder
and even more expensive were the charges
(fornelli) used in countermines and in fougasses
which consumed powder in exorbitant quantities.
The 100 lbs (45 kg) of gunpowder necessary, on
average, to fire a fougasse (propelling over 3 tons
of rock) yielded roughly 20 charges for a cannon, 80
for a rampart gun (muschettone da posta), or else
filled 400 musket paper cartridges.
Above, Plan of a walled enclosure attached to the quarters

of the Capomastro, showing storage of various types and
calibres of cannon shot and bombs stacked in pyramids. The
location is unknown but may form part of either the Upper
or Lower Barracca ( i.e., SS Peter and Paul Bastion or St
Christopher Bastion) judging by the pilasters shown in the
drawing. These appear to form part of the arcaded loggias
(the barracche) that occupied these bastions. Indeed, the plan
seems to be proposing the walling-up of part of the loggia for
storage purposes, perhaps out of a need to prevent the public
from having direct access to the munitions. (Image source:
Courtesy of the National Library of Malta). Bottom right, British
nineteenth century mortar battery with stacked shells and
expense magazine in the background, situated on the Valletta
enceinte (Image source: Authors private collection).
Bombs, grenades, paper cartridges, grapeshot

rounds (sacchetti di mitraglia), and fuse chord
(meccia) were not always kept inside a forts powder
magazine (polverista) and one encounters other
storage areas that were set aside for the purpose.
Cannon shot and grapeshot rounds were stacked
in pyramids next to guns of corresponding calibre.
This was a practice which was retained well into
the nineteenth century. Many photographs from
the latter half of the 1800s, for example, still show
the harbour defences armed with cannon and shot.
Indeed, in 1852, Governor Sir William Reid was still
complaining tothe secretary of state of the nuisance
of unserviceable munitions and piles of French shot
on the Batteries by the side of English guns,just
of a size to render the guns unserviceable if one of
the shots were to be, by mistake, put into one of the
English guns. Although it had long been intended to
remove all the French cannon andshot there, it was
not until 185960 that a re-classification programme
finally witnessed the removal of most of the obsolete
weapons and munitions.
written instructions were issued for the distribution

of 1,200 cartridges to the Vittoriosa militia, 1,000
to Senglea and 5,000 to Cospicua while the
commander of Fort Ricasoli was asked to determine
if he had an adequate provision in his magazines
to supply his guarnigione ordinaria together with
a further 300 men to be sent there in case of
emergency.
One of the duties of the governor of a Hospitaller
fortress was to keep his position well-supplied with
adequate quantities of gunpowder and shot which,
if not large enough to withstand a prolonged siege,
were at least sufficient to allow the stronghold
to ward off determined raids. In determining the
amount of munitions necessary for each gun,
consideration had to be taken of the calibre and
65
weight of shot of each weapon. It was reckoned

that each cannon round would burn a weight of
powder equivalent to a third of that of the shot.
In 1785, Fort Chambrais complement of shot
consisted of 321 rounds of 8-pdr iron shot and
1,141 rounds of 6-pdr iron shot together with 224
sacchetti di mitraglia, and 180 paper cartridges.
66
67
A large warehouse and administrative building used by the

Orders artillery department, situated near St Andrew Bastion
, Valletta, in the location known as Biagio Steps (shown on
left side of document). The complex also incorporated a
scuola per gettare bombe on the adjoining platform. One
of the magazines is shown as being used for the storage of
incendiaries and other types of fireworks (artifizii). The plan
shows the uppermost floor of a large three storey building,
which, unfortunately was levelled out during WWII (Image
source: Courtesy of the National Library of Malta).
Above, Two views of what appears to be an eighteenth-century

magazine at the foot of Crucifix Bastion, just to the rear of a
Hospitaller low battery discovered in the course of restoration
works. (Images source: Authors private collection). Right, top,
Proposal for a magazine in Marr Harbour, Gozo, which may
have been used for both commercial and military purposes.
Bottom right, An open storage area for cannon shot below the
cavalier of Fort St Elmo. (Image source of plans: Courtesy of
Reference is occasionally also made to large

deposit areas around the fortifications where vast
quantities of shells were stored, again mostly in the
open. An undated eighteenth-century plan of Fort St
Elmo, for example, shows a large spazio chiuso e
scoperto per le palle da canone situated just below
the left face of the cavalier. Another appears to show
a temporary deposit of shells housed beneath the
roofed arcaded loggia of the Upper Barracca (see
illustration on previous page).
68
Other sorts of materials connected with the

working of artillery were generally housed in
warehouses and other stores falling either under
the jurisdiction of the commander of artillery or the
naval department (arsenale). Such warehouses are
generally shown as housing bars of iron (un fascio
di ferro quadrato per le petriere fatte di nuovo),
lead, meccio, and wood for carriages. Fuse chord
was rolled up in balls (ballone di meccio). Among
the interesting items encountered in the artillery
stores were various stromenti geometrici to
measure le portate delli tiri and wooden ruote to
seal off the powder chambers of fougasses.
Strict regulations were also issued for the breaking
up of old and consumed gun carriages and the
disposal of their wooden components as attested
by the following decree of 1554: Dispozioni redatte
in lingua Italiana, intorno alla a rimonzione di ceppi
rotti o di legname inutili dellartiglieria , ... che
per levar et remuover alcuni abusi hanno ordinato
et espresso probito che da qua avanti il com.re de
lartilleria non possa rompere o disfar ceppo o rota
de lartillaria ne altro legname se non in presentia
delli prodhomi et trovandosi detti ceppi rotti e
legnami fargili et inutili per servire che nessuno de
detti com.ri o prodhomi le possa appropriare ma
siano riservati in beneficio della religione et questo
medesimo sintenda del com.ro del arsenale et altri
officiali.
Right, top, Elevation drawings revealing the damage caused to

Fort Ricasoli by the explosion of the gunpowder magazine in
Fort Ricasoli as a result of the Froberg mutiny. (Image source:
Courtesy of the Arch. H. Bonnici). Right, Nineteenth-century
gunpowder magazine in St James Counterguard, Valletta.
Below, gunpowder magazine in St Michael Counterguard,
Valletta. (Images source: Authors private collection).
69
Below, A Large early British-period gunpowder magazine at Fort Ricasoli (A

Magazine), one of two to be built by the British military in the early decades of
the 1800s. The construction date has still to be determined. A record plan of
1867 shows it labelled as cancelled. The magazine was initially protected
on the northern and seaward sides by a high and detached earthen
wall (see bottom, plan and elevation). The enclosure was later
filled in to create a large earthen massif designed to shield
the magazine from naval bombardment, while the
northern end of the roof was also modified to
accommodate a command post and directing
station for the forts new RML coastal gun
batteries. A smaller magazine (inset, bottom,
far right), possibly the first to be built, is
located on the gorge of St Dominics
Demi-bastion, close to the original
location of the forts casemated
magazine. (Images source:
Authors private
collection).
70
71
requisitioned and converted into use as gunpowder

magazines. Among the new gunpowder magazines
erected in the early British period were those
placed on the Valletta counterguards and another
two erected at Fort Ricasoli. The latter became
necessary when the old magazine inside the forts
casemated ramparts was blown up by the mutineers
in the course of the Froberg mutiny.
Above, from top, Early-nineteenth century British expense
magazines at Fort Ricasoli and Fort Manoel. Bottom, Fort
Ricasoli and its gunpowder magazine - see previous page
Epilogue - The Orders magazines in the British

period
Like the fortifications they were meant to serve,
the eighteenth century Hospitaller gunpowder
magazines continued to soldier on well into the
British rule. Furthermore, the need to supply both
the local garrison as well as the large British
Mediterranean fleet with all the munitions necessary
for war meant that the then existing network of
stores had to be enlarged and more storage areas
created to house the growing volume of supplies.
As a result, a number of new gunpowder magazines
were erected in various locations while some of
the vaulted spaces within a few of the existing
harbour fortifications (such as the three large barrel
vaults inside the cavalier of Fort St Angelo) were
72
In all these structures, the British-built magazines

were given much the same features of the Vaubanstyle magazines except, however, that these
were not fitted with lateral counterforts. British
military engineers were not fond of counterforts.
Capt. Lendy, writing in his Treatise of Fortification
(London, 1862) states that the counterforts of
Vaubans magazines were objected to, on account
of their shadow which caused the wall to keep
moist in the corners and that most engineers
preferred to see the counterforts constructed inside
the walls.
The largest of the British-built gunpowder
magazines is found at Fort Ricasoli, situated to
the rear of No. 3 Bastion, on the seaward side
of the enceinte. Many early nineteenth century
depictions of the fort show the magazine quite
clearly, surrounded by a low boundary wall. Today,
however, most of the structure lies buried beneath
a large earthen massif which was added around
the middle of the nineteenth century in order to
shield the magazine from naval bombardment. A
similar solution was also adopted for the Hospitaller
Left (previous page), A British-period brass

lightning conductor (paratonnerre) fixed to
the parapet above the gunpowder magazine
situated in St Michael Counterguard, Valletta.
This magazine was erected during the early
half of the nineteenth century but was never
used for its intended purpose - Col. Lewis
plan, dated around 1864, shows it marked as
S.M. (i.e.,Storekeepers Magazine - inset).
This page, side view of a typical nineteenthcentury British expense magazine as built
along the Floriana and Valletta enceintes.
This example is located on St Luke Bastion,
Floriana land front. Note the sunken steps
leading down to the entrance on the rear
faces and the small lateral events - inset.
73
magazine on Capuchin Bastion at Floriana.

British military engineers also introduced another
category of gunpowder magazines in the early
decades of the nineteenth century. These were the
so-called expense magazines small, solidly built
magazines that were meant to house small amounts
of munitions necessary to work the guns on a
battery. These structures were usually built directly
on the gun platforms and were generally grafted on
to the parapets and made to double up as traverses,
their thick solid walls designed to protect the gun
crews from ricochet fire. There had been nothing of
the kind employed in the earlier Hospitaller period.
Capt. Lendy describes expense magazines as
temporary bombproof structures designed to contain
enough made-up ammunition to last 24 hours.
A large number of these small British expense
magazines were erected around the perimeters of
most of the harbour forts, particularly in Valletta,
Floriana, Ricasoli and Cottonera. The study of
nineteenth-century gunpowder stores, however, falls
outside the scope of this paper and will be featured
in a future edition of this series.
What is of interest here, is that the British military
interventions, on the whole, did not result in the loss
of many of the Hospitaller period magazines and
that the majority survived to the present day with
little or no alterations. Those magazines which were,
unfortunately, demolished were the large gunpowder
store on St Clement Bastion, which was removed to
make way for a redoubt forming part of St Clement
Retrenchment within the Cottonera Lines, and
that on St Anthony Bastion in Fort Manoel, which
was demolished to make way for a battery. The
magazine in Vendme Bastion, Valletta, on the other
hand, was converted into an armoury in 1855, an
intervention which saw its pignons heavily altered
and replaced by large arched openings.
The few structures which have survived, described
and illustrated in this paper, are now important
examples of a typology of fortress buildings that
deserve further attention, study, and preservation.
A. HOPPEN, The Fortification of Malta by the Order of St

John (Edinburgh, 1979): 2nd revised edn. was issued in
paperback by Minerva Publications (Malta 1999).
Q. HUGHES, Britain in the Mediterranean and the
defence of her naval stations (Liverpool, 1981).
, Fortress: architecture and military history in Malta
(London, 1969).
, Guide to the Fortifications of Malta (Malta, 1992).
, Military Architecture (Hants, 1991).
, The Fortifications of Malta (Wirral, 1997)
D. DE LUCCA, French Military Engineers in Malta during
the 17th and 18th centuries , Melita Historica, viii /1 (1980),
2333.
, Mondion; The achievement of a French military
engineer working in Malta in the early eighteenth century
(Malta, 2003).
J. Muller, A Treatise Containing the Practical Part of
Fortification: In Four Parts (London, 1755)
B. Forest de Belidor, La science des ingenieurs dans la
conduite des travaux de fortification ... (Paris, 1754)
LAbbe du Fay and Chev. De Camray, Vritable manire
de bien fortifier, de M. de Vauban, (Amsterdam, 1702)
G. Blond, le, Elemens de fortification contenant les
principes & la description raisonne des differents
ouvrage quon emploi la fortification des places, les
systmes des princepaux ingenieurs (Paris, 1756).
, Traite de la Defense des Places avec un precis
des observations les plus utiles pour proceder la visite
au ... et un dictionnaires des termes de lartillerie de la
fortification (Paris, 1762).
, Manuel de lIngenieur et de lArtilleur (Paris, 1762).
H. Yule, Fortifications for Officers of the Army and
Students of Military History (Edinburgh & London, 1851).
Capt. Lendy, Treatise on Fortification (London, 1862).
Can. G. P. F, Agius de Soldanis, Gozo antico e moderno,
sacro e profano (Manuscript - Maltese translation by
Mons. Dun G. Farrugia (Malta, 1936).
H. Cotty, Supplment au Dictionnaire de lArtillerie (Paris,
1822).
P. Bergre, Note sur les Magasins a poudre in Memorial
de LOfficier du Genie (Paris, 1820)
E. Philip Krider, Franklin, Ingen-Housz and Protecting
Gunpowder from Lightning in the 18th Century (Univ. of
Arizona, 2012).
Sources
Full references and notes will be available in the printed
version of this journal. Below is a basic list of the sources
consulted:
Archives of the Order of St John, National Library, Valletta
: AOM 269, 270, 1015, 6519, 6551-6558, 6560, 6565,
Manuscript Collection MS 290, 1301 / Collection of Plans
at the National Library of Malta, Valletta / Regolamento
per la Custodia della Polvere (1715)
S.C. Spiteri, Armoury of the Knights, A study of the
Palace Armoury, and the Military Storehouses of the
Hospitaller Knights of the Order of St John (Malta, 2003).
, The Art of Fortress Building in Hospitaller Malta
(Malta, 2008).
74
N. SAMUT-TAGLIAFERRO, N., British Military Facilities in

Malta, BA dissertation, Faculty of Architecture (University
of Malta, 1982).
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for the assistance of: the National
Library of Malta, for making the collection of Hospitaller
plans available for study; Prof. Denis de Lucca, Director,
International institute of Baroque Studies, University
of Malta and Arch. Hermann Bonnici (Restoration
Directorate); Midi plc (Fort Manoel); Mr M. Balzan,
Heritage Malta (Fort St Angelo); Malta Film Commission
(Fort Ricasoli).
The International Institute for Baroque Studies

at the University of Malta is offering a two-week
Summer School on the military architecture of the
Baroque age entitled Hospitaller Malta Bastion
of the Christian World, to be held at the Valletta
Campus of the University of Malta, 3-14 June 2013.
The aim of this program - which is co-ordinated
by Professor Denis De Lucca - is to introduce
participants to the theoretical and practical aspects
of the splendid early modern artillery fortifications
of Malta, which were built by the ruling Hospitaller
Knights of St John the Baptist during the period
1530-1798. The course lectures, by specialists
in the field from various European and American
universities, will also attempt to place these stillvisible examples of military architecture in their
proper historical, philosophical, mathematical,
medical, technical and representational context
so as to enable the participants to relate the
fortifications of Malta with what had been built in the
former abode of the Knights in Rhodes and what
was now being built in the Christian world of the
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries
where fortifications were mushrooming everywhere
in an age described by the Italian diplomat Fulvo
Testi as the age of the soldier. Although primarily
built by a religious order of hardened warrior
Besides having forty-five contact hours of lectures

and debates, course participants will also have the
opportunity to experience early modern military
architecture during a number of field trips which will
be introduced by an afternoon cruise of the heavilyfortified cities of Valletta, Vittoriosa and Senglea
bordering the once-famous Grand Harbour of Malta.
These field trips will also extended towards the
end of the course by guided optional tours to early
modern fortifications situated on the sister island of
Gozo and south-east Sicily.
Further information can be found on the website
of the International Institute for Baroque Studies
at http://www.um.edu.mt/imp/military_architecture
For further information on how to apply please send
e-mail to info.imp@um.edu.mt or register directly
at http://www.um.edu.mt/imp/military_architecture/
registration
75
monks to protect Christendom from the Turkish

threat, the powerful bastions of Malta were also
intended to project the prestige and aristocratic
family connections of the Grand Masters who
commissioned them and the formidable military
engineers who designed them, in the context of an
ever-changing scenario of alliances and wars that
characterized the courtly culture of Baroque Europe.
www.militaryarchitecture.com
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76
The next issue in the series ARX OCCASIONAL

PAPERS will be devoted to a detailed study of
FORT ST ELMO as it stood during the GREAT
SIEGE OF MALTA in 1565, based on the
latest research and archaeological discoveries
and illustrated with new 3D computer graphic
reconstructions. This issue will be the first part
in a series of monographs focusing on the
fortifications of the Knights of St John at the time
of the Great Siege and will include separate
publications on Birgu, Senglea, Mdina and the
Gozo Citadel. These new monographs are
based on Dr Stephen C Spiteris new second
edition of his book on the Great Siege of 1565
(2005) which is currently under preparation.

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ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Available also on CD-ROM

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 1 / 2011 - FORT TIGNE 1792

ARX Occasional Papers - ISSUE 2 / 2012

By Dr. Stephen C Spiteri Ph.D.

prudhommes had already been formulated by the

Dr Stephen C Spiteri Dipl. (Int. Des.) RI, B.A.

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

polvere di bombarda, Rotoli di fino salnitro, and

There were two methods by which the Order

Above and below, The gunpowder magazine at Fort St Angelo. This

That the Order imported gunpowder from a large

perhaps, on the same site of the old factory. In this

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Another is the arrival in Malta, during the reign of

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

When the Order of St John transferred its

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Above, Plan of a section of the Floriana enceinte showing the location

structure enclosed within a high-walled rectangular

a number of local entrepreneurs had taken over the

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

walls of Valletta. Even so, it also dawned on them

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Above, inset, Plan of the Lascaris

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Left, Various examples of Vauban-style gunpowder magasins

polvere) was 700 scudi whilst another 300 scudi

The Orders Magasins poudre la Vauban

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

In the Maltese context, a gunpowder magazine

without doing the least damage to the vault; the

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

The dimensions of Mr. Vaubans magazines, are as

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

These two pages illustrate the plan, shape,

Garde de feu boundary wall

Main entrance to magazine

Ventilation shafts known as events or

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 1 / 2011 - FORT TIGNE 1792

planks. [This does not apply to the Maltese version

Internal yard used for

Sloping roof of gunpowder

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

face the south nearly if possible; in order to render

Above, A 1715 proposal for a magazine on St Clement Bastion,

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

they me piled up as high as you please, or taken off

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Above, Map of Valletta and its harbours showing the knights

la Vauban, and the ones which were meant to

M. de Vauban a toujours plac les magasin

used for the storage of powder. The second was

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

Above, A proposal, dated to the early 1720s, for the

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

This page, above, View of the Vauban-type gunpowder

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

The two gunpowder magazines of Fort Manoel,

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES

ARX - OCCASIONAL PAPERS - ISSUE 2 / 2012 - HOSPITALLER GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES