Fort Bengħajsa, as shown in a from newscut shared by the Department of Information.The British-era Fort Bengħajsa in Birżebbuġa has been formally entrusted to Heritage Malta, a year after squatters who stayed on long after the expiration of their lease were belatedly evicted.
In a statement announcing that the title to the fort had been transferred from the Lands Authority to Heritage Malta, the government said that the agency would be assessing the state of the building and aim to make the site accessible to the public.
It also said that Heritage Malta would be working with the Birżebbuġa Council, the Scouts and other Birżebbuġa voluntary associations to assist in the running of the site.
A fort left to rot by its tenants turned squatters
Malta’s southernmost fortification, Fort Bengħajsa is a polygonal fort built by the British between 1910 and 1912 as part of a chain of fortifications protecting Marsaxlokk Bay. The Bengħajsa Tower – one of the De Redin towers built in the 17th century – was demolished in 1915 to clear its line of fire.
Part of the fort was rented out to private individuals in 1973, while the rest were rented out in 1981 and 1996.
All these rents were renewed until 2011, when the government stopped accepting them with the aim of evicting the tenants who had manifestly failed to safeguard the property they were entrusted with: they built various illegal structures and left the fort in a state of neglect.
This led to a lengthy legal battle to evict them, one which only ended last year after a court dismissed an injunction filed by the squatters against the Lands Authority last February.
Eviction proceedings are still ongoing for what the government described as “a small area distinct from the fort” in its statement on Friday.
The government also said that many of the illegal structures built on site had been removed.
However, two enforcement cases related to the squatters’ illegal and ruinous interventions on site remain active, with the first dating back to 2016 (EC/450/16) and the other opened last year (EC/39/25) after the squatters’ eviction. Daily fines are due on the first.
Photo: Geoffrey Zarb Adami (Department of Information)
