The Grand Harbour

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Malta’s Grand Harbour runs the length of the Sceberras peninsula covered by the city of Valletta and its suburb Floriana; its mouth faces St Elmo’s Point at the tip of the Valletta peninsula and it is enclosed to the south by Ricasoli Point. The Sceberras peninsula also divides Grand Harbour from a second parallel natural harbour, Marsamxett Harbour.

The main waterway of Grand Harbour continues inland to Marsa. The south-eastern shore of the harbour is formed by a number of inlets and headlands – Rinella Creek, Kalkara Creek, Dockyard Creek, and French Creek, which are separated by Kalkara and the Three Cities: Cospicua, Vittoriosa, and Senglea.

Development has grown all around the twin harbours and their surrounding slopes so that the whole bowl is effectively one large conurbation. Much of Malta’s population lives within a three kilometre radius of Floriana, one of the most densely populated areas in Europe.

History – Maltese Harbours in Antiquity

Kordin Prehistoric Temples dating back to around 3700 BC, as well as Punic and Roman structures found overlooking the harbour, attest to its use in antiquity, while by the 12th century a medieval fort, the Castrum Maris, had been built at the tip of Birgu. In 1283, the Battle of Malta was fought at the entrance of the Grand Harbour when the Aragonese defeated a larger Angevin force.

Following their expulsion from Rhodes, the Knights of St John made it their base for 268 years. In the late 16th century a devastating tornado there destroyed a fleet of galleys and killed 600 people, while most of the Great Siege, when the Turks attempted to eject the Knights of St John, took place around the Grand Harbour. In the following two centuries the Grand Harbour became a prosperous commercial hub, contributing greatly to Malta’s social and economic growth.

Following the Knights’ expulsion by Napoleon’s fleet, the French were in turn blockaded in the Grand Harbour by Maltese rebels until their capitulation to the British when it became the base of the British Mediterranean Fleet for 170 years. Their docks and naval installations were targets for Axis bombers during World War II – the second Siege of Malta – and the whole area was savagely bombed, wrecking much of Valletta and The Three Cities, and causing large numbers of civilian casualties.

The harbours and docks are still active with a commercial rather than military focus though much of Malta’s commercial shipping is now handled by the new Freeport at Kalafrana, so the harbour is much quieter than a century ago.

Breakwater

During the Knights’ period, the wide entrance to the Grand Harbour was protected by a heavy chain running across the mouth of the harbour from Fort St Elmo to Fort Ricasoli to keep enemy ships out of harbour.

However, by the twentieth century, better protection was needed to protect the Harbour, not only from intruders and torpedo attacks, but also from the rough seas which could cause havoc within the harbour, especially as the strong north-easterly wind (grigalata) makes ships’ entry into the harbour very difficult. In 1900, the British Admiralty commissioned plans for the building of a new breakwater across the mouth of the harbour. The foundation stone of the breakwater in the Grand Harbour was laid by King Edward VII on the 20th April 1903. Interestingly, the tender included the condition that any artefacts found during the dredging of the sea-bed be handed over to the Admirality. The estimated cost was £1,000,000.

To avoid stagnation of the water inside Grand Harbour, the larger arm of the breakwater extending from Saint Elmo Point was to be separated by 70 meters from the fore-shore by a steel foot-bridge. The two-span bridge would enable anyone walking onto the breakwater from its Valletta side to reach the small light-house at the end of the arm. The tower on the St Elmo arm was to be 14m high, and was completed by 1908.

The breakwater was built by the English firm of S. PEARSON & SON who employed almost 500 men, including those working at the Gozo and Mistra quarries. The underwater work was carried out by divers carrying out the work using early diving suits and diving bells supplied with air pumped from the surface using a manually operated pump. It was officially opened in 1910.

From a socio-economic point of view the building of the breakwater was very important, not only providing jobs for the Maltese at a time when there was massive unemployment and poverty but also for skilled workers from neighbouring countries – mainly from Sicily, Italy and Spain.

During World War II the foot-bridge on the Valletta side of the breakwater was destroyed when, at dawn on the 26th July 1941, the E-boat unit of the Italian Regia Marina attacked the breakwater in a savage, but futile attempt to gain access into the harbour. The Italians paid a heavy price, as all the attacking vessels were destroyed in the counter-attack which involved guns on Fort Saint Elmo, Fort Ricasoli, and beyond.

Following the increase in cruise liners visits to Malta, the plan to regenerate the Valletta Grand Harbour included the rebuilding of the St. Elmo bridge. This project was to cost €2.8 million; the 190-ton, 70m bridge inaugurated in 2012 was fabricated in La Coruna, Northern Spain and shipped to Malta as a whole structure, similar to the old one but formed of a single span instead of two.

The Grand Harbour is now a popular cruise liner port which inspires the same awe and wonder as cruise passengers glide past its ramparts as it has done for centuries past.