Magazine Curtain is a long
casemated rampart built in the early decades of the 18th century to
replace and reinforce the old medieval ramparts along the west flank of the
city’s enceinte. The rebuilt section of the curtain wall dates to the 1720’s
and was designed by the Order’s resident French military engineer Charles
Francois de Mondion. The curtain is a casemated structure built from a series of
barrel-vaulted rooms which were used as storage magazines. Magazine Curtain has
suffered considerable damage from heavy fissuring of its casemated walls owing
to a subsidence of the underlying terrain and was in dire need of repair and
restoration. Some of the casemates were on the verge of collapse.
The ERDF 039 project (MDN 05)
sought to arrest the movement and fissuring of the massive walls and their
internal casemates through various interventions involving the insertion of
deep micro-piles and anchors, as well as the restoration of the masonry fabric
of the ramparts.