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Spinola Redoubt
Spinola Redoubt ( mt, Ridott ta' Spinola), also known as Birżebbuġa Redoubt ( mt, Ridott ta' Birżebbuġa), was a '' tour-reduit'' in Birżebbuġa, Malta. It was built by the Order of Saint John in 1715–1716 as one of a series of coastal fortifications around the Maltese Islands. It has been demolished. History Spinola Redoubt built in 1715–1716 part of a chain of fortifications that defended Marsaxlokk Bay, which also included three other redoubts, the large Saint Lucian Tower, two smaller De Redin towers, seven batteries and three entrenchments. The nearest fortifications to Spinola Redoubt were Pinto Battery to the northeast and Birżebbuġa Entrenchments to the south. Spinola Redoubt was one of four ''tour-reduits'' built in Malta, with the other three being Fresnoy Redoubt, Vendôme Tower and Marsalforn Tower Marsalforn Tower ( mt, Torri ta' Marsalforn) refers to two towers that stood near Marsalforn, in the limits of Xagħra, Gozo, Malta. The first one was built ...
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Birżebbuġa
Birżebbuġa (; sometimes shortened to B'Buġa) is a seaside town in the Southern Region of Malta, close to Marsaxlokk. It is approximately from the capital Valletta, and it has a population of 9,736 as of March 2014. The town is popular among Maltese holidaymakers, and is known for its sandy beach, Pretty Bay. The village is also notable for its important archaeological sites, especially Għar Dalam, Ta' Kaċċatura and Borġ in-Nadur. Etymology "Birżebbuġa" means "well of olives" in the Maltese language. Such linguistic evidence established early inhabitants were in the south of the island since the first millennium. The name also indicates climate and food. History Prehistory Near the village of Birżebbuġa is ''Għar Dalam'', meaning a dark cave. Għar Dalam Cave is a highly important site, as it was here that the earliest evidence of human presence on Malta was discovered. Artefacts date back to the Neolithic Period some 7,400 years ago. The display area consists ...
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Marsalforn Tower
Marsalforn Tower ( mt, Torri ta' Marsalforn) refers to two towers that stood near Marsalforn, in the limits of Xagħra, Gozo, Malta. The first one was built in 1616, as the fourth of six Wignacourt towers, and collapsed in around 1715. The second was a '' Tour-reduit'', which was built in 1720 and demolished in 1915. Both towers formed part of a chain of fortifications built to defend Marsalforn and nearby bays from Ottoman or Barbary attacks. Although the area was fortified by several towers, batteries, redoubts and entrenchments, the only surviving vestige of these is Qolla l-Bajda Battery between Qbajjar and Xwejni Bays. First tower The first tower, which was also known as Xagħra Tower ( mt, Torri tax-Xagħra), was the fourth of the Wignacourt towers. Construction started in around 1614 or 1615, and the tower was completed in 1616. The tower commanded Marsalforn Bay to the west, and Ramla Bay to the east, effectively guarding the northern approach to Gozo. It was clearly v ...
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18th-century Fortifications
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expand ...
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Limestone Buildings In Malta
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, . ''Magnesian limestone'' is an obsolete and poorly-defined term used variously for dolomite, for limestone ...
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Demolished Buildings And Structures In Malta
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for reuse purposes. For small buildings, such as houses, that are only two or three stories high, demolition is a rather simple process. The building is pulled down either manually or mechanically using large hydraulic equipment: elevated work platforms, cranes, excavators or bulldozers. Larger buildings may require the use of a wrecking ball, a heavy weight on a cable that is swung by a crane into the side of the buildings. Wrecking balls are especially effective against masonry, but are less easily controlled and often less efficient than other methods. Newer methods may use rotational hydraulic shears and silenced rock-breakers attached to excavators to cut or break through wo ...
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Military Installations Established In 1715
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of the military is usually defined as defence of the state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms ''armed forces'' and ''military'' are often treated as synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. There are various forms of irregular military forces, not belonging to a recognized state; though they share many attributes with regular military forces, they are less often referred to as simply ''military''. A nation's military may ...
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Hospitaller Fortifications In Malta
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem until 1291, on the island of Rhodes from 1310 until 1522, in Malta from 1530 until 1798 and at Saint Petersburg from 1799 until 1801. Today several organizations continue the Hospitaller tradition, specifically the mutually recognized orders of St. John, which are the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John, the  Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of Saint John, the Order of Saint John in the Netherlands, and the Order of Saint John in Sweden. The Hospitallers arose in the early 12th century, during the time of the Cluniac movement (a Benedictine Reform movement). Early in the 11th century, merchants from Amalfi founded a hospital in t ...
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Fortified Towers In Malta
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek '' phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or English fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Though smaller than a real fortress, they acted ...
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Spinola Battery
Spinola Battery ( mt, Batterija ta' Spinola), also known as Fort Spinola, was an artillery battery in St. Julian's, Malta. It was built by the British between 1889 and 1894, and it was demolished to make way for hotels and a yacht marina. History Construction of Spinola Battery began in 1889 and was completed in 1894, at a cost of around £5000. It was part of a new series of fortifications meant to house breech-loading (BL) guns. Spinola Battery was located behind the Spinola Entrenchment, an 18th-century bastioned entrenchment wall stretching from St. Julian's Bay to St. George's Bay. It had a pentagonal shape, and was armed with four guns, including two 9.2-inch BL guns. Its armament was removed in 1907. The battery was converted and developed into a hospital, known as the ''Spinola Hospital'', during World War I. It served as a hospital from 16 November 1915 till 27 April 1917. It was designed to serve for roughly 1000 patients, but during the war it had served for a maxim ...
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Vendôme Tower
Vendôme Tower ( mt, Torri Vendôme, colloquially ''Torri tal-Vandomu'') is a '' tour-reduit'' in Marsaxlokk, Malta. It was built by the Order of Saint John in 1715 as one of a series of coastal fortifications around the coasts of the Maltese Islands. It is the only surviving ''tour-reduit'' in Malta. Today, Vendôme Tower houses the headquarters of Marsaxlokk F.C. The ''tour-reduit'' is also known by several other names, including Vendôme Redoubt ( mt, Ridott ta' Vendôme), Qrajten Redoubt or Craite Redoubt ( mt, Ridott tal-Qrajten) and Fisheries Redoubt. History Vendôme Tower was built between 1715 and 1716 as part of the Order of Saint John's first building program of coastal fortifications. It was one of four ''tour-reduits'' built in Malta, with the other three being Fresnoy Redoubt, Spinola Redoubt and Marsalforn Tower. However, the others were all demolished, leaving Vendôme Tower as the only one of its kind. The tower was named after Philippe de Vendôme, the Grand ...
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Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies south of Sicily (Italy), east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The official languages are Maltese language, Maltese and English language, English, and 66% of the current Maltese population is at least conversational in the Italian language, Italian language. Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians and Ancient Carthage, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights Hospitaller, Knights of St. John, French, and British, amongst others. With a population of about 516,000 over an ...
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