Moorish battlements? I think, Bill, you will find they were built by the knights of the Order Of St. John. When they were allocated to Malta, their only requirement was to provide one peregrine falcon to the king of spain on an annual basis as token payment for their occupancy.
In 1565, it was the Ottoman Turks who descended on the island and besieged it. Various accounts say they numbered somewhere between 30 to 40 thousand. For a really good introduction I would say look up Ernle Bradford for his immensely readable account of what happened. Grand Master Jean de la Valette goes down in history as the one who held it all together for the defenders when it could all so easily have gone the other way. The knights well and truly earned their right to stay.
I've just got a copy of Balbi's text of the events - another interesting read from an eye-witness who was actually there as it happened . . . in 1565!
okay moorish shaped battlements!! From what i saw, there is a bit of everything there, maybe what i saw from the ship was the turkish stonemasons influence. To be honest, Grecchus, i never read up on malta while i was there, was too busy enjoying the jacuzzi on the ship's deck and chatting up young rich blonde american divorcees.
And im Bill, not Bob. Hes the one with with the posters and Score info, and Im the one who doesnt know his history of maltese architecture.
Well, Malta does have a few trees dotted around . . . it's just that they are rather sparse. It has alot of irregular stone terraces (d'ya think that'll fool em' ) with the odd fig tree interspersed. But, hey, if you look up at all the cranes overhanging the top-heavy architecture along the seafronts these days, you just might be able to substitute them for trees - with a little bit of imagination.
Anyone seriously interested in siege warfare can't overlook what took place in Malta during 1565. There were basically a cluster of forts centered around the grand harbour. The turks decided to take them on piecemeal. The first to bear the brunt of the onslaught was at the end of the spur on which now sits the walled city of Valetta. In 1565 it was a bare mound of rock known as Mount Sciberras. And at the end of it, on the depressed point of the spur, stood little fort St. Elmo. The epic of fort St. Elmo is akin to what happend to the Alamo. Lets just say the outcome was the same. In his book, Ernle Bradford describes the heroic fort as resembling a smoking volcano, such was the weight of turkish gunfire upon it. Balbi says they used 18 thousand rounds of cannon and basilisk shot to reduce the ramparts. Most, if not all the defenders had sustained multiple wounds from repeated attack over the course of more than a month of investiture. The final attack on St. Elmo was made by the turks on Saturday 23rd June. With St. Elmo taken, the attackers then turned their attention to the other side of grand harbour, where the whole process then repeated itself against the remaining substantial fortifications that had been erected by the knights in the decades since their arrival on the island. The knights were barricaded in their defensive positions throughout the siege.
If you remember Ridley Scott's depiction of the siege of Jerusalem from Kingdom Of Heaven (now that was really impressive stuff), the saracens under Saladin concentrate their siege engine fire at a weakened wall, which is basically a bricked up former gate, in order to bring it down. This they do in the belief that a dash for the breach will succeed. Something similar happened at Malta. Only the turks used a massive buried mine placed under one of the defensive walls. In the film, Balian is seen to rally the defenders so as to prevent the weakened position from being overrun. At Malta, it was Grand Master Valette who, at the age of 70, stood in the breach and stemmed the flow of the surging attackers. The knights just would not budge.
interesting stuff grecchus. i may still be ignorant of architecture but i know a little more about the sieges!!
and i forgive you for changing Bob back to Bill and ruining my retort!! ha ha.
Anyway. whatever shape they are and whatever their origin, the ramparts in the main harbour in Malta are very impressive, especially viewed as the sun sets from the jacuzzi on the deck of a giant royal carribbean cruiser shared with a rather lovely blonde divorced ex model from Augusta named Casey!!