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James Robertson
Interior of Fort Manoel
[Photographic views of Malta, taken in 1856, by James Robertson]
1856
Salted paper print, from glass negative
25.8 x 30.3 cm (image)
The Royal Collection
RCIN 2700020
LL/91072
View of the baroque chapel dedicated to St Anthony of Padua inside Fort Manoel, with three men in front of it and a fourth one closer to the foreground. The star-shaped fort was built by the Knights of Malta between 1723 and 1755 on what it was then called Bishops Island, which already hosted the Lazaretto, a quarantine hospital. After the fort was built, the island started to be called Manoel Island, as it is still known today. The complex was an active military establishment and the chapel, together with barrack blocks, gunpowder magazines and other buildings, was built around a large central piazza, doubling as a parade ground. The fort, affected by bombing during the Second World War which badly damaged the chapel, has recently undergone a complete restoration programme. The bronze statue visible on left-hand side of the photograph depicts António Manoel de Vilhena (1663-1736), 66th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta, who built the fort. The statue was removed from the fort in 1858 to be relocated in Queen's Square in Valletta and moved again in 1989 to be placed in front of the Mall gardens in Floriana, a town near Valletta, which had been founded by Grand Master Vilhena.
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