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Mgarr ix-Xini
The port of 'ix-Xatt
l-Ahmar' is situated on the other side of 'Ras it-Tafal'
with Fort Chambray towering on the clay slopes. To the west
of this bay, at the western-most limits of the village,
there is Mgarr ix-Xini. It can be reached by proceeding left
past the Gozo Heliport and, at a certain point, down the
lane going towards the promontory known as
Ras il-Hobz.


This bay was used by Turkish raiders
in raids on Gozo, especially the famous raid of 1551, when
according to historians, the whole population was carried
off into slavery. At the end of the sixteen century a Tower
was built to safeguard this inlet. The tower is now know as
'It-torri tal-Mgarr ix-Xini'. It was built at the expense of
the local Universitas on a plan by Mederico Blondel, an
engineer of the Order of Saint John. Its estimated cost was
857 Scudi. The tower was functioning by June 1661, when it
artillery and gunpowder were provided by the Order. It was
manned by a castellan and a professional bombardier, both of
whom were salaried by the Universitas.
This tower could send and receive
communication from the Comino Tower and from that the Santa
Cecilja Tower.


The tower, with
the entrance landward, has two floors with one room each. The
lower room has a ceiling arched stone corbels, two small
windows and a hatch leading to the upper or main room. This
was the living and all-purpose room of the guards. The room
has a strongly built vaulted ceiling to withstand enemy cannon
ball. A winding spiral staircase leads to the roof. On the
roof there was a gun platform enclosed by its embrasured
parapet. On the landward side, there was also a small powder
magazine and a guardroom, the latter a unique feature in that
location. These are now half dismantled. However
this tower was not
adequate and a bigger tower was built inland on the hill
overlooking the bay where today the main Gozo highway passes
known as the
Tower of St Cecilja.
The tower was restored during the year 2000 by the Ministry
for Gozo and Wirt Ghawdex.
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