An 18th-century star fort on its own small island in Marsamxett Harbour, Fort Manoel is one you get to know from outside, along the island's public shore and through the park around its walls.
Fortress, Sliema. Meridian Dispatch.
None are published, and the fort has no regular opening. Access comes on occasional open days, which the operator, MIDI plc, announces in advance in the news section of its website, midimalta.com.
Only on an open day. Open days have included guided tours of the fort's history, and the announcement gives that day's hours. The Baroque chapel inside is a rebuild: a direct hit in March 1942 destroyed it, and it was reconstructed between 2007 and 2009.
Yes. In 2011 the fort served as a filming location for Game of Thrones. It was used for the climactic scene of Baelor, the ninth episode of the series.
The fort is laid out as a square with a bastion at each of its four corners, the classic star plan, and two cavaliers stand within the walls. From the path along the water, you look up at those bastions, and the ones on the Valletta side face the capital across the harbour.
Bombed in the Second World War, the fort has been rebuilt since 2001, so the limestone walls you see are restored.
A large natural park surrounds the fort on its small island.
Inside the walls, a quadrangle, parade ground and arcade are dominated by a Baroque chapel, the Chapel of St Anthony of Padua, built of the same limestone as the walls.
Crossing the little bridge from the Gżira waterfront puts you on Manoel Island, on foot or by bike.
Turn onto the public shore on the Gżira side and follow it below the fort's walls. Then walk up into the park around the fort.
Bring swimming things if the day is warm, because the island has a rocky shore to swim from.
For the whole fort in one frame, finish on the Sliema ferry, which passes it on its way across the harbour.
For a second look at the whole fort, view it from the Valletta side of the harbour, across the water from the island.
The harbour's other fort stands on Tigné Point. The Order of St John built it in 1792 to strengthen the defence of the harbour and the capital.
Stay a short boat ride from Valletta, and swim off the Tower Road rocks the same afternoon.
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