Lascaris Battery

File:Cité de La Valette, île de Malte.jpg on the site of Lascaris Battery]]

When the British took over the Maltese islands in 1800, they used the fortifications built by the Order of St. John almost without alterations. Under the military theory of the time, the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean was regarded as the most reliable protection against invasion. However, during his time as governor, Sir William Reid ordered gun batteries to be added inside the Grand Harbour, in order to repel any ships which broke through the cordon of Fort St. Elmo and Fort St. Angelo and penetrated the harbour. Construction of Lascaris Battery began in 1854,{{cite book|last=Castillo|first=Dennis Angelo|title=The Maltese Cross: A Strategic History of Malta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5ns5LNtoiUC&pg=PA134|access-date=19 February 2013|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32329-4|page=134}} on the site of Ġnien is-Sultan, a garden that had been built by Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris.{{cite web|last1=Scerri|first1=John|title=Set 8 pitturi / paintings - 1. Gnien is-Sultan - Grandmaster's Garden|url=http://malta-canada.blogspot.com/2012/03/1-gnien-is-sultan.html|website=malta-canada.blogspot.com|access-date=8 March 2015|date=4 March 2012}}{{cite journal|journal=Bulletin of the Museum|last=Bonello|first=Vincenzo|date=1931|title=Maltese Water Colours by Edward Lear and H. de Chacaton|url=http://melitensiawth.com/incoming/Index/Bulletin%20of%20the%20Museum/Bulletin%20of%20the%20Museum.%201(1931)3/10.pdf|volume=1|issue=3|page=144}} The battery was thus named after him.

During the Second World War, the Lascaris War Rooms were dug under the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the casemates of the Lascaris Battery, into rock.{{cite book|last=Rix|first=Juliet|title=Malta and Gozo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj7MN2TLfdwC&pg=PA119|access-date=21 February 2013|date=15 June 2010|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=978-1-84162-312-2|page=119}} The network of tunnels and chambers located {{convert|150|ft}} below the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery were used as “The War Rooms” of Britain's War HQ in Malta.{{cite book|last=Holland|first=James|title=Fortress Malta : An Island Under Siege 1940–1943|year=2004|publisher=Phoenix|location=London|isbn=9780304366545|page=170}} The facility later housed the headquarters of the Allied invasion of Sicily during mid-1943.{{cite book|last=Holland|first=James|title=Fortress Malta : An Island Under Siege 1940–1943|year=2004|publisher=Phoenix|location=London|isbn=9780304366545|page=416}}

On 24 December 1941, Lascaris Battery, along with the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery, were damaged in an air raid. The damaged parts were later rebuilt.

File:2 Saluting battery 080917 Ilford Delta 100.jpg in the foreground, with the RML 9-inch gun emplacement at Lascaris Battery in the background]]

A high bastion was built on the harbour side of SS Peter and Paul Bastion, below the rectangular Saluting Battery. Lascaris Battery has an irregular trapezoid shape with rounded corners. A shooting platform extends from the right flank. A parade ground was located inside the new bastion. Beginning in 1868, the two-storey casemates were converted to barracks, which, as a result, have open galleries facing the parade ground.{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Quentin|title=Malta: a guide to the fortification|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tM4LAQAAMAAJ|access-date=21 February 2013|year=1993|publisher=Said International|isbn=978-99909-43-07-8|page=139}}

At the beginning of the 1860s, the battery was equipped with fourteen 8-inch 9-ton RML guns. In addition, four 10-inch 18-ton guns were stationed on the left flank of the battery. On an additional platform beneath the left flank of the saluting battery were three 10-inch howitzers. In 1884, the battery was armed with seven 64-pound 64-cwt RML guns in the casemates, which were protected by a wall approximately {{convert|1.3|m|ft}} thick. Since these guns were outmoded, they had to be replaced by more modern artillery. A 9-inch 12-ton RML gun was mounted on the battery on an open barbette in a very exposed situation. The powder store, with a capacity of {{convert|30,500|lb|kg}}, was protected only by {{convert|3|m|ft}} walls and roof. Overall, the construction of the battery was outdated and the installation no longer able to defend against modern artillery.

• Lascaris towers, a series of watchtowers built by Grand Master Lascaris in the 17th century
• Lascaris War Rooms, the World War II-era underground complex close to Lascaris Battery

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|Lascaris Bastion}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150402150405/http://www.culturalheritage.gov.mt/filebank/inventory/Knights%20Fortifications/1614.pdf National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands]

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Category:Artillery battery fortifications in Malta

Category:British fortifications in Malta

Category:Forts in Malta

Category:Military installations established in 1854

Category:Buildings and structures in Valletta

Category:Limestone buildings in Malta

Category:19th-century fortifications

Category:1854 establishments in the British Empire