Official Opening of St Thomas Tower

Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna's new Pirates and Corsairs Museum housed in St. Thomas Tower, Marsascala is now open to visitors. It was inaugurated this week by the Hon. Dr Ian Borg, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for tourism and the Hon. Dr Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Minister for European Funds and the Implementation of the Electoral Programme in a short ceremony in the presence of FWA Chairman Mario Farrugia and Perit Kevin Fsadni, Deputy CEO of the Malta Tourism Authority and guests. The Malta Tourism Authority has facilitated the implementation of this project in several ways. Without its generous help this hugely challenging project would not have been possible.

St. Thomas Tower was built by Grand Master Wignacourt in 1614 to the defend the Marsascala and St Thomas Bays following the big Barbary corsair landings in the area in the summer of 1613. It is the largest coastal tower built and was designed by the Maltese military engineer Gabriele Cassar son of Girolamo Cassar.

Following a long period of restoration co-funded by European Regional Funds the historic tower has been converted into a museum about Corsairing and Piracy through the ages - the very threat that the tower was built to repel. The new museum houses a collection of original period artefacts connected with the museum's theme. It also includes audio-visual shows and interactive interpretation along with a large number of engaging conventional story boards which tell the story of pirates and corsairs since pre-history up to present times. As one would expect, a large part of the museum is dedicated to Maltese Corsairs and the Barbary Pirates which for some 400 years had continuously menaced the Christian and Muslim Mediterranean mercantile trade as part of the perpetual war between Christendom and the Ottoman Empire and its proxies in North Africa - the Barbary States between the 15th and early 19th century. Malta placed at the centre of the Mediterranean featured prominently in this struggle and Maltese corsairs (licenced pirates by the state) had become famous for their ability even before the arrival of the Hospitaller Order in 1530.