Fort St Angelo stood at the center of Grand Harbour and served as the Order of St John's headquarters during the Great Siege. The Order rebuilt the earlier Castrum Maris across the decades before 1565, with much of the work following the 1551 attack. Its position created a defensive puzzle: an attacker needed the harbour to reduce the fort effectively, yet could not securely control the harbour while the fort remained active. Placement within a naval base could matter as much as the thickness of a fortress wall. Extensive reconstruction in the 1690s helped give the fort its present appearance.
Notable Point · 1:21:40-1:23:39
Fort St Angelo and control of Grand Harbour
Fort St Angelo's position at the center of Grand Harbour made the fortress and the anchorage mutually difficult to capture.