The Red Tower, St Agatha's fort above Mellieħa

The Red Tower can be seen from all over Mellieħa Bay, red against the ridge, and it’s one of those buildings that explains a landscape. If you’ve ever wondered why northern Malta is dotted with towers, this is the clearest answer.

Why the Knights built a tower here

To understand it, start with the town. VisitMalta explains that Mellieħa was an isolated 15th-century hamlet on the ridge above Għadira Bay, and that it was abandoned for a couple of centuries because it was so exposed to pirate and Saracen raids. People only moved back in the early 18th century.

Into that empty stretch of coast, in 1647, Grand Master Lascaris put St Agatha’s Tower. According to VisitMalta’s official listing, it was then the furthest outpost from Valletta and acted as a signal post for communication with Gozo. It was one of the main defensive positions of the Knights’ era, with a cannon and a garrison of 30 men. Put like that, it reads to me more like a small fort than a lookout.

Why is it red?

The official answer is refreshingly simple. VisitMalta says it’s known as the Red Tower because of the colour it was painted and restored in. Its real name is St Agatha’s Tower, and you’ll see both around Mellieħa and on maps. The colour does its job, too, since from the beach below or the Gozo ferry you can’t miss it.

What it looks like

It’s square in plan, with four corner towers rising from the base. The outer walls are about four metres thick, with small windows cut through them. You didn’t simply walk up to the door, either. The entrance was reached by a flight of steps separated from it by a drawbridge, which tells you what the builders were expecting.

In the 18th century a low star-shaped entrenchment was added around it, and that’s what gives it the fortress silhouette you notice from below. For the rest of the island’s defences, see my guide to forts in Malta.

From the Knights to radar

The tower never really retired. Under the British it was used for defence and was manned during both world wars. More recently, the Armed Forces of Malta fitted it out as a radar station. Few of the Order’s buildings have had such a long working life.

It had a partner across the water, too. St Mary’s Tower on Comino, put up in 1618, was there to guard, according to the Ministry for Gozo, the channel and signal between the islands. I like to picture the two as parts of one system, one on each shore.

Visiting, views and fitting it in

On visiting, I have less than I’d like. VisitMalta’s official listing, last updated in 2021, had it open every day from 10:00 to 13:30, with parking. It gives no price and I haven’t found anything more recent, so treat those hours as a guide and confirm them first if the tower is your only reason to go.

What’s guaranteed is the setting. Right below is Mellieħa Bay, which VisitMalta describes as the largest of the area’s thirteen sandy coves, and behind the beach lies the Għadira reserve, a 97.74-hectare wetland in the Natura 2000 network. My plan would be the tower first thing, the beach afterwards and, if you’re staying, a wander round the town, which I cover in Mellieħa.