Construction of Fort Manoel, 1723, a bronze medal, unsigned, bust of Manoel de Vilhena right, rev. inscription and date in six lines, 36mm, 12.19g (Schembri p.208, 3). Good very fine, very rare £500-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Coins and Medals of Malta, the Property of an Officer Brother of the Order of St John.

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Built on an island in Valletta’s Marsamxett Harbour, the fort was begun in September 1723 to plans drawn up by the Frenchman René Jacob de Tigné and the Order’s military engineer, Charles François de Mondion. It took around a decade to complete and when Mondion died in 1733, he was buried in the crypt under the fort’s chapel