D’ Homedes Bastion is the first
artillery bulwark which was built by the Knights in Mdina. It is dated to
around 1542 and may have been designed by the Italian Military engineer Antonio
Ferramolino. The bastion has an interesting and unique system of countermines
built into its design and is one of the few first-generation works of
fortification built by the Knights before 1565 to survive in a largely well
state of preservation. The bastion was heavily damaged due to a subsidence of
the underlying terrain and was in dire need of repair and restoration. A small
bastionette, added to the left face of the bastion in the course of the early
eighteenth century, was also in need of restoration.
The ERDF 039 project (MDN 03) sought to arrest
the movement of the walls through various interventions involving the
insertions of pylons and anchors, as well as undertaking the restoration of the
masonry fabric of the ramparts.