SS. Peter and Paul Counterguard

SS. Peter and Paul Counterguard

SS. Peter and Paul Counterguard is a large two-tiered artillery platform, one of the four counterguards designed by the Italian military engineer Giovanni de Medici in 1640, in order to provide added protection to Valletta’s land front. This counterguard was built in the form of a stepped structure, owing to the inclined nature of the terrain. Structurally, the counterguard is a solid massif with few internal covered spaces, the main elements of which are vaulted communication passages which link together the tiered artillery platforms, a 19th-century gunpowder magazine and a WWII concrete post. It is also linked to a sally-port in the face of SS. Peter and Paul Bastion directly by means of an arched bridge while a ramp, cut through the gorge of the counterscarp around 1735, leads down into the main ditch.