Fort Binġemma – what next?

Fort Binġemma – what next?
Locals demand a future worthy of Mellieħa’s silent sentinel

From the ridge above Għajn Tuffieħa, the honey-coloured limestone of Fort Binġemma glows every sunset like a half-remembered promise. Built by the British in the 1870s to deter an Italian invasion that never came, the fort has spent most of its life waiting for a purpose that never quite arrived. Now, after decades of abandonment and a recent, controversial fire, Mellieħa residents are asking one urgent question: “What happens next to our fort?”

The blaze that tore through the site in January left gaping holes in the barracks’ roof and scorched Victorian brickwork already weakened by storms. Yet the damage also sparked something positive. Within days, a Facebook group called “Salvaw Fort Binġemma” swelled to 8,000 members, crowdfunding €11,000 in emergency tarpaulins and organising weekend clean-ups that filled 200 skips with decades of fly-tipped debris. “We proved the fort still matters,” says Anna Spiteri, a Mellieħa councillor who helped coordinate the volunteers. “Now we have to prove we can imagine a future for it.”

That imagination is the tricky part. The government’s 2021 call for expressions of interest drew two hotel proposals, one glamping concept and a boutique winery, but none satisfied Heritage Malta’s demand that any reuse “respect the military narrative”. Meanwhile, local NGOs favour a mixed community hub: open-air cinema, farmers’ market, climbing walls on the crumbling ramparts. Mellieħa mayor Gabriel Micallef jokes that every meeting ends with someone quoting the 2015 South Malta coastal plan: “Heritage should be a stage, not a museum.”

The fort’s cultural resonance runs deep. Elderly villagers remember 1950s British soldiers marching through Mellieħa square for Sunday mass. Teenagers recall sneaking in at night to drink beer and stare at stars unobstructed by light pollution. Tour guides mention the WWII radar installation whose ghostly aerial masts still poke above the rubble. “It’s not just stone,” says heritage architect Edward Said. “It’s memory layered like limestone strata.”

Economically, the stakes are high. Mellieħa already leans heavily on summer tourism; an uninspiring hotel would merely cannibalise existing bed stock. A 2023 Deloitte impact study commissioned by the local council estimates a sensitively restored Fort Binġemma could create 70 year-round jobs in culture, food and eco-sports, while reducing seasonal pressure on Golden Bay traffic. “We don’t need more sunbeds,” says chef Rafel Sammut, whose Għajn Tuffieħa farm-to-table restaurant has become a rallying point for activists. “We need reasons for visitors to come in November.”

Environmental concerns add urgency. The fort sits inside the Majjistral Nature & History Park, home to rare orchids and peregrine falcons. Any project must navigate Natura 2000 rules and a fragile cliffscape already scarred by illegal dirt-bike tracks. “One wrong retaining wall and we lose the view that makes the fort magical,” warns park manager Audrey Gauci.

Yet momentum is building. In April, the Parliamentary Secretary for Public Works hinted at a public-private partnership model similar to Fort St Elmo, with EU funds covering restoration and a heritage foundation managing long-term programming. A design charrette—part-funded by the Malta Architecture & Spatial Planning Authority—will invite local students to sketch visions this summer. The catch: all proposals must include at least 30% community access, a clause inserted after residents packed the Mellieħa primary school hall in February and refused to leave until the PA chairman signed the minutes.

Walking the site at dusk, you can see why people care. Swallows dip through broken embrasures; the scent of wild fennel drifts over stone still warm from the day. A teenager spray-paints “For Us All” on a plywood board covering a collapsed arch. Whether that phrase becomes prophecy or graffiti will depend on decisions made in air-conditioned offices far from the ridge. But one thing is certain: after 150 years of waiting, Fort Binġemma’s next chapter will be written not by distant empires but by the community that has finally claimed it as its own.