Fort Binġemma Becomes Malta’s First Dark-Sky Science Fort in Landmark Xjenza Deal

Fort Binġemma officially handed over to Xjenza Malta in landmark deal
=======================================================================

Rabat’s 19th-century hill-top stronghold will be transformed into a living science hub, promising stargazing, night walks and “no laser tag”.

After three years of negotiations, paperwork and community consultations, the 130-year-old Fort Binġemma was officially transferred from the Lands Authority to Xjenza Malta on Tuesday morning, marking the first time a Maltese heritage fort is leased specifically for science outreach and citizen research.

Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg and Xjenza Malta chairperson Prof. Alex Felice signed the 65-year emphyteutical deed inside the fort’s sun-bleached courtyard, watched by mayors, scouts, farmers and curious hikers who use the Victoria Lines trail that brushes the fort’s moss-covered walls.

“Today we open a new chapter for a site that has served soldiers, farmers, boy scouts and, occasionally, late-night partygoers,” Borg told the small crowd. “The brief was clear: preserve, educate, innovate. No laser tag, no disco lights. Just science under the stars.”

Local context: from armoury to astrophotography
———————————————–

Built between 1875 and 1878 by the British to command the western ridge between Mġarr and Rabat, Fort Binġemma is the largest and best-preserved of the four Victoria Lines forts. Its 2.5 km of rock-hewn ditches, caponiers and search-light emplacements were meant to deter an Italian landing; instead it deterred budget airlines, remaining one of the few Maltese forts never converted into a restaurant or paint-ball arena.

Xjenza Malta, the national science communication centre based at Villa Bighi, won the international call for expressions of interest in 2021 with a €4 million restoration and adaptation plan funded largely by EU structural funds and HSBC Malta Foundation. The outline includes a 60-seat planetarium dug into the former powder magazine, a dark-sky observation deck on the roof, and a “living lab” where researchers from Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (MCAST) and the University of Malta will monitor light pollution, biodiversity and soil erosion in real time.

Cultural significance: not just another fort
——————————————–

For Rabat mayor Sandro Azzopardi, the handover ends decades of limbo. “We grew up playing football inside these crumbling walls, then worrying about vandalism,” he said. “Now our children will learn about galaxies where soldiers once polished bayonets.”

Heritage NGO Din l-Art Ħelwa, which had placed the fort on its “at-risk” register since 1996, applauded the reuse model. “Adaptive reuse must breathe life, not gimmicks,” president Maria Grazia Cassar said. “This project respects the Scheduled Property designation and keeps public access free on designated days.”

The fort’s chapel, dedicated to St Anthony and frescoed by POW Italian soldiers in 1942, will be restored to serve as a multimedia room narrating the human stories of the Victoria Lines, including Maltese stonemasons who reversed British blueprints to sneak extra bread rations.

Community impact: jobs, dark skies and school buses
—————————————————

Economists at the Chamber of SMEs estimate the site will generate 35 full-time equivalent jobs in restoration, hospitality and tech support, plus 60 indirect posts once the science café and astronomy retail outlet open in 2026. A shuttle service from Rabat and Mġarr will ferry school groups up the narrow country road, easing congestion that has long irked farmers tending surrounding terraced fields.

Light-pollution activists are ecstatic. “We finally have a government-sanctioned dark-sky zone north of the Dingli cliffs,” said Steve Zammit Lupi, who runs the Malta Astronomical Society’s youth programme. “The fort sits 200 m above sea-level, faces north-west, and has a horizon uncluttered by high-rises. Expect Milky Way shots to flood Instagram by 2025.”

Not everyone is star-struck. Hunters’ lobby FKNK reminded authorities that the area falls within a seasonal trapping site. “We expect clear signage and enforcement so that bird conservation science doesn’t clash with traditional countryside practices,” spokesperson Joe Perici Calascione warned.

Looking ahead
————-

The first phase—roofing, drainage and safety works—starts in October and will last 14 months. Until then, monthly “hard-hat tours” will be held for residents who want to graffiti-survey the walls and pitch ideas for the eventual science playground.

For 12-year-old Aaliyah Borg from Rabat Girl Guides, who attended the ceremony clutching a home-made constellation chart, the timing is perfect. “By the time I sit for my O-levels, I could be doing coursework inside a real fort under real stars. That beats any video game.”

As the brass band struck up a jaunty march and the last signatures dried on the deed, one couldn’t help feeling that after 130 years of guarding against imaginary invaders, Fort Binġemma’s new mission is to defend something equally precious—Malta’s curiosity.