Painting the Town White
The White Tower in L-Aħrax was the sixth of 13 built by Grand Master Martin de Redin around the coastline. Its chequered history, including a period of.
Published
For the teenage students, it was the ultimate day out. Decades ago, when the White Tower at L-Aħrax was in the hands of the Sacred Heart Convent, the girls who got an average of 75 per cent for their school subjects were treated to a day there.
One of them, Joanna Brincat, is now in her 70s but she can still recall the excitement of being on the 'list'. "It was such a treat. We were taken there for the day – and we got a day off school," she recalls. Those were interesting days for the tower… It had been leased to Sacred Heart Convent in 1947 and was used by them for many years, creating wonderful memories. But although it was leased to various individuals after the nuns stopped using it, it had been abandoned by the early 2000s. After hundreds of years, the historic site slowly but surely fell into disrepair.
The Mellieħa local council took it over in 2009, and in 2016, they signed a 10-year agreement with Din l-Art Helwa, the National Trust of Malta. By then it was in poor shape. Parts of the structure were collapsing: the roof of a room in the surrounding ditch had fallen in, wooden apertures were missing, and stones were falling from the roof parapet. The voluntary organisation set about restoring it, fully aware of its significance as part of Malta's history.
What to look for
- White Tower (Aħrax Tower) at L-Aħrax: Sixth of 13 coastal towers built by Grand Master Martin de Redin; built 1658 to watch over the Comino channel. Restored by Din l-Art Helwa.
The Aħrax Tower – as the White Tower is also known – was the sixth of the 13 towers that Grand Master Martin de Redin had built at his own expense around the coastline. It was built in 1658 and its strategic location on a raised piece of land made it invaluable for keeping watch over the Comino channel.
The ground floor was originally used to store cannon balls and gun powder for the cannons mounted on the roof, while the upper floor was used as living quarters for the torriera, or commander of the tower, three soldiers and a bombardier acting as reinforcement.