Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower
Open-knowledge reference entry
Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower (Maltese: Torri ta' Santa Marija tal-Grazzja), also known as Delle Grazie Tower (Maltese: Torri tal-Grazzja), Madonna delle Gratie Tower (Maltese: Torri tal-Madonna tal-Grazzja) or Blata Bajda Tower (Maltese: Torri tal-Blata l-Bajda), was a watchtower in what is now Xgħajra, Malta. It was constructed in 1620, and was the last of six Wignacourt towers to be built. The tower was demolished in the late 19th century by the British military.
History
Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower was built above the shore to the east of Grand Harbour, close to the present day town of Xgħajra, on or near the site of a medieval watch post. It was the last of the six Wignacourt towers to be built. The stone laying ceremony of the tower took place in April 1620, and it was built on land belonging to Giorgio Mamo, who later built the Mamo Tower.
Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower only cost 4948 scudi to build, which was less than the cost of the other towers. This implies that it was smaller, however, it was the most heavily armed of the towers. Some weapons were therefore possibly deployed outside the tower (even though it had no external battery like some of the other towers).
The exact shape of the tower is unknown, as no detailed plans, paintings or photographs of it are known.
“Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Santa, Maria and delle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7419725. The first chronological checks are 1620.
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This entry incorporates text from “Santa Maria delle Grazie Tower” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.