St. John Bastion forms one of the
four important and massive bulwarks protecting Valletta’s land front. It is a large
pentagonal bulwark largely carved out of the bedrock and was also one of the
first bulwarks to be completed after the initiation of the construction of the
fortified city in 1566. The bastion contains two low batteries (piazze basse) in its flanks each protected by a
massive rounded orillion believed to have been grafted onto the shoulders of
the bastion around 1582. A sally-port opening in the right face of the bastion
provided a means of communication, via an arched bridge, to St. John
Counterguard, which was built to protect the bastion in 1640. The parapet of
St. John Bastion is pierced by six embrasures, the largest examples of their type
to have been built in the Hospitaller fortifications of Malta. This bastion had
a very heavily consumed masonry fabric, and fissured bedrock, requiring various
types of interventions to repair the damaged stonework and remove the rampant
spread of vegetation that had taken root on the faces of the bulwark. The
terrace platform of the bastion is a popular public garden. Commanding the
bastion is a large towering pentagonal cavalier, one of the two central cavaliers
dominating the land front defences of Valletta.