The Red Tower
The fact that we were in eye shot from our hotel of a structure built around 1649 was always going to get my attention.
Being a striking looking red tower made it even better, and located on a prominent mountain top made it quite unmissable.
Saint Agatha's Tower (Maltese: Torri ta' Sant'Agata), also known as the Red Tower (Maltese: Torri l-Aħmar), Mellieħa Tower (Maltese: Torri tal-Mellieħa) or Fort Saint Agatha (Maltese: Forti Sant'Agata), is a large bastioned watchtower in Mellieħa, Malta.
It was built between 1647 and 1649, as the sixth of the Lascaris towers. The tower's design is completely different from the rest of the Lascaris towers, but it is similar to the earlier Wignacourt towers. St. Agatha's Tower was the last large bastioned tower to be built in Malta.
This had to be one of the first things we were going to check out, and I had no idea it was so close to where we was staying too; what a bonus!
It looks just as good close up as far away, and authentic as they come. Part of it has been rebuilt and as like most old towers, it has had a spell of being neglected and then restored.
In the case of Saint Agatha's Tower, the restoration took place as recently as 2001.
It cost €2 to gain admission; good value I thought. The lower floor has been kitted out for tourists with the usual things to read regarding history and a recurring video of not just the tower’s history, but the whole island.
I did watch part of it, and then noticed some really great prog-music accompanying the documentary.
I hurriedly scrambled for Shazam on my phone to discover what it was, only to be told ‘no matches’; what a bummer!
I asked the caretaker about the music but he didn’t know either. He did tell me that several others have also asked, most of them being German.
The caretaker of the tower was a rather talkative Scottish bloke who informed us that he was married to a Filipina.
@bingbabe is of that country and so we struck together a good conversation and gained some great information about the tower, Filipina’s in Malta and other such things!
For instance, the inside of the castle has this date of 1814 scratched in blood into the wall. This is the date of a deadly plague that reached the island, and investigating further this can be confirmed here.
Many people took refuge in the tower between 1813-1814 but only one person survived and therein lies this marking on the wall, made by the sole survivor. It’s strange to think this happened over 200 years ago, and we can still see it today.
On a lighter note, @bingbabe tried on this plate armour, which was rather heavy but didn’t really make her look too fierce. Those pink running shoes wouldn't really put the fear of god into oncoming enemies!
The Scotsman explained that the Knights of St John would have had to wear this plate while fighting with huge swords.
It’s 30C outside the castle, and not comfortable to walk around in your shorts. What would it be like wearing all that armour and fighting too?
The stairs of the tower are not the original ones and quite easy to climb compared to some of these old buildings we have explored. Circular steps brought us to the top of the tower and gave us some lovely views of Gozo, Comino and Għadira Bay.
It was a clear day and we could see for miles, yet there was nobody else in the tower. I was glad for the ropes around the edges of the tower.
Somehow it made me feel a little safer and I suffered no vertigo for once.
You can see this corner turret of the tower still retains the original stonework. It has that ancient authentic rugged look about it.
I had to get some photographs of this amazing tower and only took a couple on my first visit.
It’s a shame they erected a telegraph pole right behind it, and more so a Satellite dish on one side!
Due to the tower being so close to the hotel (I could see it through the windows as you can see if this photograph), I was intent on returning for some sunset shots.
The problem is that the sun sets in the west and the ground immediately east of the tower is less elevated than the tower itself.
This does not make for great sunset shots, but undeterred I stood balancing on a wall and managed to get this one.
Just to the west of the tower, some more sunset seekers were congregating for them too. Unfortunately the clouds were not really in the mood for spectacular ones, though I did try and get a couple.
Fort Campbell
During our conversation with the friendly Scotsman, he mentioned an old world war two barracks that has been abandoned and left as a ruin.
Being the type who likes exploring I asked of the location and he pointed it out quite clearly to us.
We set off in anticipation of some creepiness, and subsequently got lost. Fortunately Camp William was on google, so we backtracked from a dirt track and found yet another dirt track.
It looked like this was off the beaten track and in the middle of nowhere. Approaching the barracks, we noticed a van parked up and I was unsure of the inhabitants.
The van drove off several minutes later leaving us alone in this spooky deserted old fort.
@bingbabe had an uneasy feeling about the location and refused to get out of the car, so it was up to me to have a look around and the the first thing I spotted was a wine bottle, almost empty perched on the ground.
This gave me an idea of the kind of people I could meet; not the type I would want to.
The buildings were old and decrepit and there were many of the over a large area. I entered the closest one and was met with ruin, decay and vandalism.
The place looked like a drop out location and I was not really too keen to stick about for long. There appeared to be nobody about, but they may have been back at anytime.
I really would have liked to scout out the area a little more thoroughly but the wine bottle told me a story. It was quite fresh and had been recently placed.
It’s a shame that these old historic places attract such people. Having a scout on the internet confirmed my suspicions that Fort Campbell has been repeatedly vandalised and that there are plans to rehabilitate the fort.
Until this happens, it will remain an unsightly mess and a place for daring people to explore.
I did contemplate going back to the Fort alone as it was only a couple of miles from the hotel but thought better of it. Maybe my age is bestowing some wisdom and common sense into me.
All photographs were taken by myself.
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Malta looks a pretty nice place. I've not been but my wife went with a friend some years back - she took some nice photographs. The tower is pretty fancy as old red towers go. The WW2 stuff would be of real interest to me and I'd like to visit the Malta at War Museum.
There was a lot we didn't see due to lack of time and having the presence of a moody teenager, I regret not renting the car for any extra day. It's a small island but there's a lot to see.
I've got to admit, I agree with your missus, the building looks dodgy as hell. Looks like a drug den on the inside ^^
Love the write up, hope you doing more on Malta, a country thinking of visiting in 2020 (other stuff planned before then).
I have more Malta material coming up, being an active Steemian kinda makes you a journalist and writer.
I didn't notice any needles but wasn't really rummaging about in all the crap!
That fort does look spectacular. Are there other red buildings around? I like to learn some history of places I visit. The folk in ancient times were not stupid and building like this show they knew what they were doing. We can't seem to build things that last these days.
Looks like you are the only one adding to the map in Malta. I hope to see many more flags on there. I'm doing some travelling this year, so I'll do my share.
I didn't see any others like this one, I would have been there otherwise. Life must have been harsh then, building this in the boiling weather.
You're right, only 3 locations of Malta and all from me. There will be more soon too.
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Nice to see the weather has cleared up for you and that you got off the beaten track. I love going to places like that where the crowd doesn't go. So much history in such a small place.
I try to find strange places and I'm not one for tourist traps, though I did go to a few while here. The best ones seem to cost, which is annoying.
Hilarious picture of the armour clad shield maiden.
I would have looked for the old barracks too. Nothing like finding things yourself. I remember when we climbed into the old German bunkers on the west coast of Denmark hoping to find an old skeleton with a swastika badge.
Did you find anything interesting? These places tend to be full of graffiti and undesirables, making them somewhat dangerous, but its still a thrill to look.
There used to be many air-raid shelters from WW2 in the UK but many have been sealed up. I hunted one down a few months ago only to find its been demolished.
No, not really. Our imagination filled the place with all the horrors of the era our grandparents. Everything was in black and white when we played soldiers in these old installations. Most of them was being taken over by nature, some of them covered in the rough grass or halfway into the sea.
Nice write up and awesome photos. I was going to comment on the satellite dish in the one photo. That is pretty funny. Was it something in the stones that gave the tower the red color? It is apparent they tried to stick with that theme on the restoration efforts.
It really is red, I guess the brickwork in the locale was at the time of building. This was one of the highlights of the holiday, I love old places.
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FOR TSE: There is something so haunting about abandoned buildings. @bigtom13 did a post months back on an abandoned town somewhere out west. The effects of it lingered for days. The sadness, the despair ... the exhaustion. You could just feel it in every one of his pictures.
This was quite an adventure for you.
P.S. Your wife looks like an alien in that get-up.
There seems so much of these abandoned places in Malta, but not so much here in the UK. Most of the time, they are dropout areas so you need to be careful of dodgy people.
They always seem to be creepy too. My next article is on the same theme again but very different. @bingbabe looks like a munchkin knight, half armoured haha!
An interesting article @slobberchops. I've seen the red tower but never been in it. We're usually just driving past on our way to Gozo.
Glad you're enjoying yourself! 😊
Wow! What an amazing place! I think if it was in the UK, you probably wouldn't be allowed to roam around it due to health and safety though lol
I'm kind of getting into these 'places your shouldn't visit' recently. I wonder what's next? There's less choices in the UK.
Really nice pictures, I've always wanted to visit Malta one day...
Nice story boss,keep it up
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You did well to read all this in 2 minutes.
Exactly what I thought lol, just taken me 5 mins to read it and pretty fast reader.
Yes boss
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STOPI've never managed to get Shazam to work. If I'm trying to identify a song that has words I usually try to memorize a sentence and then Google it.That red tower is fantastic and I love your photos! I'm surprised they allowed @bingbabe to try on that armour - if it was in the UK it would probably be in a glass case! Fighting while wearing that must have been as bad as running a marathon in it, I'd imagine.