Saint Agatha's Tower

Where it sits. Saint Agatha's Tower stands on the spine of Marfa Ridge at the northwestern end of Malta, on the high ground above Mellieħa Bay, reached by the narrow Triq Tad-Dahar that runs west along the ridge from the Ċirkewwa road. Everyone calls it the Red Tower, for the ochre-red limewash on its walls, and the colour is the point: it was meant to be seen. From the parapet the view covers the whole northern approach to the island — Comino and the South Comino Channel directly ahead, the cliffs of Gozo behind them, Mellieħa Bay and the Selmun peninsula to the east, and on a clear day the line of coastal towers running along the north shore toward Valletta.

Why it was built here. Mellieħa Bay was the one place on this coast where a hostile fleet could land troops on sand rather than rock, and the Order of St John knew it. Work started in November 1647 and finished in April 1649, following plans drawn up by the architect Antonio Garsin; it was the sixth of the towers put up under Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris and the last large bastioned tower the Order ever built in Malta. It broke with the small, cheap Lascaris pattern and reverted to the heavier Wignacourt model of forty years earlier — which tells you how seriously the council took this particular stretch of coast.

The architecture. The plan is a square block with four squat corner turrets, giving it the look of a miniature fort rather than a watchtower. Cannon ports in the turrets provided interlocking fire along the base of the walls and across the gateway, with larger embrasures in the faces of the main block. At their base the outer walls measure some four metres through, and a single barrel vault roofs the whole interior. The turrets carry distinctive fishtail merlons, unlike anything else in the Maltese coastal tower series. A chapel was fitted inside. The garrison was thirty men, provisioned and munitioned to hold out for forty days, and the tower doubled as the northern magazine: powder and shot for outlying works — Aħrax Tower, Wied Musa Battery — were kept inside it. In the early eighteenth century a low rubble entrenchment in a redan trace was thrown around its flanks, so it also functioned as a redoubt.

Three centuries of continuous use. Unlike most of the Order's towers, this one was never retired. The British manned it through both World Wars, and in the later twentieth century the Armed Forces of Malta used it as a radar post; the Qammieħ radio installation of 1938 stands further along the same ridge road. That constant occupation did not translate into upkeep. By the 1990s the building was in poor condition — one turret had disappeared entirely and another was close to collapse. The heritage organisation Din l-Art Ħelwa took it on in 1999 and completed a full restoration in 2001: rebuilt turrets, new roof and wall fabric, replaced facing stone, a reinstated internal stair to the roof, and the original floor slabs uncovered. Because the old paving is dangerously uneven, it now sits under a timber deck with glass panels through which the original stone is visible.

On screen. The ridge and the tower were used for the Disney thriller Trenchcoat (1983), shot largely in Malta with Margot Kidder — the production listed both Marfa Ridge and the Red Tower among its locations, along with Għajn Tuffieħa Tower and Mnajdra. The tower's flat red mass against a bare limestone ridge is an unusually cinematic piece of military architecture, and it appears constantly in Maltese tourism imagery for the same reason.

What a visit involves. The tower is still cared for by Din l-Art Ħelwa and open to the public, staffed by volunteers, with a modest entry charge that goes to maintenance. Inside there is a single large vaulted hall, a display on the Order's coastal defence system, and stairs to the roof, which is where the visit actually pays off. Outside, the ridge is open garrigue — thyme, asphodel, low rubble walls and rabbit burrows — with rough footpaths running west to the cliffs at Ras il-Qammieħ, the highest point on the ridge at about 125 metres, and east down toward Għadira.

Getting there and timing. There is no bus to the tower; the practical approaches are by car up the ridge road or on foot from Mellieħa Bay, a stiff climb of around 45 minutes on tarmac and track. Opening hours are limited and seasonal, so it pays to check before making the trip. The ridge is exposed with no shade at all, which makes the cooler months from October to May far more comfortable for walking, while morning light gives the cleanest photographs of the red walls against the sea.