Birgu Clock Tower, Norman clock tower in Victory Square, Birgu, Malta
The Birgu Clock Tower was a five-story square structure in Victory Square standing about 40 meters tall, featuring Norman architecture with a stone-corbeled balcony on the fourth level. The building combined sturdy medieval masonry with a timekeeping mechanism added in later centuries to serve the town's needs.
The structure was built in the Middle Ages as a watchtower and received its first pendulum clock in 1629 under Grandmaster Antoine de Paul. This addition transformed it from a purely defensive building into a timekeeping landmark for the growing town.
The tower's bells, including one called Newwieha, rang throughout the day to mark time and warn residents of danger. These sounds shaped daily life in Birgu for centuries and connected the community through a shared rhythm of alerts and announcements.
The tower itself survives only as foundation stones, but visitors can explore related objects at other locations. Clock parts and mechanisms are kept at the local council office and in the Church Museum as well as Palazzo Falson, providing insight into how the original structure worked.
During an air raid in April 1942 in World War II, the structure was hit multiple times and collapsed completely into rubble. Only the foundation stones remain at Victory Square today, a stark reminder of the wartime destruction that affected the medieval town.
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