Arx Occasional Papers - Hospitaller Gunpowder Magazines

The second issue of ARX Occasional Papers (2012) is dedicated to a detailed exposition of the Magasins à Poudre and other military storehouses built by the Knights of the Order of St John in the Maltese islands throughout the course of the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. This was a time when the Order of St John came to rely heavily on French military engineers and their ideas influenced many aspects of the islands’ fortifications. Amongst the new devices which were introduced into Malta and Gozo by French engineers were the Vauban-style polveriere, or magasins à poudre as they were also referred to in contemporary records.