Kottonera lines ( malt. Is-Swar tal-Kottonera ), also known as Walperga lines ( malt. Is-Swar ta 'Valperga ); formerly known as the Santa Margarita Lines are bastions built in the cities of Bormla (Cospicua) and Birgu in Malta . They were built in the 17-18 centuries for the defense and defense of the so-called “ Three Cities ”. The bastions are located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1638, the construction of the Santa Margarita Lines began. Unfinished, they still defended the cities of Birgu and the neighboring city of Senglea. Work soon ceased due to lack of funds, and the fortifications remained incomplete. In 1669 , after the Ottomans attacked Malta, it was decided to build a new fortress, surrounding the old one. New defensive lines were named after the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Nicholas Cottoner. The architect was Italian Antonio Maurizio Walperga, in whose honor the bastion received its second name. He also built next to the "Lines of Florian" with the bastions of Provence, Notre Dame, the bastions of saints Philip, James, Luke, Anna, Francis.
At the beginning of the 18th century, great efforts were made to complete the construction of the lines. During the blockade of the French in 1798, extensions of the Cottonner line were built. In the 19th century, the British conquerors invaded Malta and built the fortification of St. Clementius, which connected the Cottonter Lines with the Santa Margarita Lines. Cottonter lines were inscribed on the 1925 List of Monuments.
Enumeration of bastions clockwise and their descriptions:
- The Bastion of St. Lawrence is a bastion connecting the lines with the front-line fortifications to Birgu. Its lower part was destroyed during World War II, and the upper is now a school.
- Bastion of San Salvatore - a five-sided bastion that protects the eponymous fort. It was built in 1724.
- The Bastion of St. Louis is a bastion in which there is a place for shooting (since the Second World War), a nineteenth-century cemetery and a private garden.
- Bastion of St. James - a bastion in which gunpowder is stored. Now turned into a chapel.
- The Notre Dame Bastion is a bastion, next to which is a deep moat dug in the 19th century.
- An unnamed bastion located between the bastions of Notre Dame and the bastion of St. Clement is a bastion restored in the 19th century. On its walls there is a shadow .
- Bastion of St. Clementius is a five-sided bastion with a defensive line and a room with gunpowder. During World War II, four concrete foundations were built.
- The Bastion of St. Nicholas is a bastion with a barracks and casemates inside.
- The Bastion of St. John is a bastion on the site of which a residential building was built in the 1960s.
- The Bastion of St. Paul is a bastion with a tunnel through which you can go to the Three Cities. Now a highway has been made there.
- Walperga Bastion - a bastion, demolished in 1870 to build a shipyard.