During the hot summer months, many Maltese families and foreign tourists spend hours and days on end refreshing themselves on Malta’s sandy beaches and rocky foreshore. Most probably, the pervading scenery includes some type of fortification – be it fort, tower, battery or redoubt – of bygone years, and some people sometimes ask about the particular fortification’s origin.If the building in question happens to be a tower, the Maltese answer, unfortunately, would normally be something like this: “Oh! That’s one of De Redin’s towers.” I use the word “unfortunately” with no qualms whatsoever. The reason is that, in the minds of many misinformed Maltese who boast about their homeland’s history but have never bothered to study it properly, all coastal towers found in Malta were built by Grand Master Martino de Redin (1657-1660). Actually, this grand master did build a number of towers but he certainly did not build them all. During the 16th century, the ruling Order of St John concentrated all its attention on the defences of Grand Harbour and, to a lesser extent, of Mdina and the Gozo Citadel. Coastal defence was ignored except for the lookout posts which continued to be manned by...