Watchovers in Qawra

At the very tip of Qawra, known as Qawra Point, there is an old watch tower that has been partly covered by the ‘Ta’ Fra Ben’ restaurant built around it. You will also notice remains of another tower along the coast that has been left in its original state. These watchtowers were built by the Order of Saint John in order to strengthen the existing coastal defence system. Each tower was positioned to have two neighbouring towers in its line of sight, so that signals could be sent from one tower to another, in order to maintain a communication link between Gozo and the Grand Harbour in Valletta. The signals consisted of smoke or cannon shots by day, or fire by night. Between 1658 and 1659, a total of 13 small coastal watchtowers were built in Malta by the Order of Saint John, nine of which are still standing till today.