The Malta Study Center, situated within the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library in Minnesota, has just shared an image of a letter dating back to the 17th century.

This letter was written on 19th September 1608 by Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt who, in turn, sent it to Fra Fabrizio Sforza Colonna. In this letter, Grandmaster Wignacourt wrote about the arrangements needed for a “secret trip to Porto Farina”, also known as Ghar el-Melh in Tunisia.

Wignacourt was the 54th Grandmaster of the Order of St John and served from 1601 until his death in 1622, at the age of 75. Unlike most Grandmasters, Alof de Wignacourt was quite popular with the Maltese people during his reign.

Nowadays, many people remember him for financing the Wignacourt Aqueduct and the Wignacourt Towers.

The former was built to carry water from Dingli and Rabat’s springs to Valletta, and was in use until the 20th century. Most of the aqueduct’s arches are still around, and they can be seen in Attard, Balzan, Birkirkara, Fleur-de-Lys and Santa Venera.

The Wignacourt Towers are a series of towers that were built along Malta and Gozo’s coastlines. Six were built in total: four in Malta, one in Gozo, and another one in Comino.

Unfortunately, two of these towers are not around anymore, as Marsalforn Tower in Xgħara had collapsed in 1716 and Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower in Xgħajra was demolished in 1888.

The remaining Wignacourt Towers are the Wignacourt Tower in St Paul’s Bay, Saint Lucian Tower in Marsaxlokk, Saint Thomas Tower in Marsaskala, and Saint Mary’s Tower in Comino. 

Fun fact: Comino’s tower was used to depict Château d’If in the 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo!

The Malta Study Center has a collection of documents related to Malta’s History and that of the Knights of St John. They currently carry out several digitisation projects to preserve these documents.

Did you know this about Grand Master de Wignacourt?

The Malta Study Center, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library / Facebook, Art / Facebook