Malta Cavalry Armoury

05/05/2025

Salute 🫡 Robert lived a great journey and always helped others joining the experience. R.I.P 🌹

Kull min għandu għal qalbu l-istorja żgur xi darba jew oħra ra lil Robert Grima. L-hena tiegħu kien li jieħu sehem fir-re-enactment. L-aħħar wieħed tiegħu kellu jkun ilbieraħ.

23/04/2025

Happy Saint George's Day

23 April

Saint George is the patron saint of soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers.

St. George is said to be a knight who saves a young woman from a dragon. He wounds the beast in battle but only kills it after the terrorised locals agree to be baptised as Christians.

22/02/2025

Punic Wars Cavalry

The cavalry is the part of an army which is mounted on horseback. This allows them to move a lot faster than anyone fighting on foot, and have a height advantage!

Throughout the Punic Wars, cavalry was very important. During the First Punic War, the Carthaginians received advice from a Greek mercenary and learned to ensure that the cavalry was the strongest part of their army. Cavalry were used very effectively at the Battle of Cannae by Hannibal and the Battle of Zama by the Romans, in new and innovative tactics.

22/02/2025

🇲🇹Nirrikjedu Suldati Għall-Xogħol Ċeremonjali : Ingħaqad magħna bħala re-enactor fis-Saluting Battery fil-Belt Valletta u l-Forti Rinella Kalkara fuq bażi full u part time. Ix-xogħol jinkludi, lbies ta’ uniformijiet, armatura, immarċjar, sparar u esperjenzi oħra ta’ taħriġ militari. Età: minn 16 sa 65 sena. Il-kandidati interessati għandhom jibagħtu s-CV bil-miktub lil [email protected].

🇬🇧Ceremonial Soldiers Wanted: Join us as a historical re-enactor at Fort Rinella in Kalkara and Saluting Battery in Valletta on full and part-time basis. The job includes, wearing smart uniforms, armour, marching, firing guns and other military training experience. Uniforms and training will be provided. Good remuneration is offered. Age: from 16 to 65 years. Interested candidates are to send their written CV to [email protected] only.

17/02/2025

Malta Mounted Infantry training at Ghain Tuffieha - February 1900 'orders were received for No.1 Company, Malta Mounted Infantry, for service abroad and to sail in the S.S. Pavonia, which left Malta for South Africa on February 20.

19/01/2025

19/01/2025

ANALYSIS: AUXILIARY CAVALRY BARRACKS
The professional army established by Emperor Augustus marked a transformative era in Roman military history. For the first time, large numbers of soldiers became full-time career professionals, paid directly by the state and equipped on an unprecedented scale. This new structure formalized the Roman Legions as professional units and made the Auxiliaries a permanent and essential element of the military. Both groups were stationed in purpose-built bases, a significant departure from the temporary camps of earlier periods. During the **Principate**—spanning roughly from the 1st to late 3rd centuries AD—the Roman army was predominantly stationed along the empire's frontiers, reflecting its strategic emphasis on border defense.

A vital component of this frontier-focused military was its cavalry, organized into **Cohortes Equitatae** (mixed infantry-cavalry units) and entirely mounted **Alae**. Unlike the standardized barracks housing infantrymen in Roman forts, the cavalry faced unique logistical challenges, as their bases needed to accommodate both soldiers and their horses. Typically, this involved separate barracks for the troopers and stables for their mounts. However, archaeological evidence suggests a more integrated solution in many Auxiliary forts, where cavalrymen shared living spaces with their horses.

Excavations at the Roman fort at **Wallsend** (Segedunum) along Hadrian's Wall in Britain revealed nine double rooms with a practical design for shared use. These rooms included elongated, stone-lined urine pits for the horses and hearths against the interior walls for the soldiers' needs. Similar setups have been uncovered at forts such as **Dormagen** in Germany. This arrangement offered significant advantages: cavalrymen could tend to their mounts more effectively and be ready for rapid mobilization, whether for campaigns or emergency defense against enemy incursions. These findings highlight the practical ingenuity of Roman military infrastructure and the adaptability of its professional soldiers.


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29/11/2024

NEXT EVENT: As from this year FONDAZZJONI WIRT ARTNA will be restoring the tradition of marking SAINT BARBARA'S DAY on the 4th of December with the firing of a full-gun salute from the Saluting Battery, Valletta as was annually done until 1939. With Saint Barbara being the patron saint of artillerymen and engineers it was accorded two gun salutes one to be fired on the 3rd the eve of the feast and another one on the feast day which falls on the 4th. The feast of Saint Barbara is one of several Roman Catholic feasts that were marked in that way first by the Hospitaller Order of St. John and later by the Royal Artillery, the Royal Malta Fencible Artillery and the Royal Malta Artillery in Malta. The firing of gun salutes on feast days was taken so seriously by the Maltese that it was included in the Declaration of Rights presented by the Maltese deputies to King George III when he was asked to place Malta and the Maltese under his protection in 1802. Consequently, these religious gun salutes went on being fired until 1939 when they were permanently interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War not to be restored again. With the restoration of peace that role was assumed by the various town and village band clubs as they still do today.

26/11/2024

Francesco Simonini was an Italian painter.

Born in Parma, Simonini was trained at the school of Francesco Monti (known as Brescianino delle Battaglie for his battle scenes) under the guidance of his fellow pupil Ilario Spolverini. Crucial importance attaches in this connection to a trip to Florence, where he studied the works of Jacques Courtois, known as Borgognone, in great depth and made some copies of them. He also visited Rome and Bologna but found success in Venice, where he worked for Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, mercenary commander of the Venetian forces in the struggle against the Turks, from 1733 to 1745 and painted a great number of battle scenes involving cavalry. His peculiar style, characterised by quick brushstrokes and the use of bright colours, was developed under the influence of the contemporary Venetian school with particular reference to view painters such as Marco Ricci and Francesco Guardi.

15/11/2024

26/10/2024

NEW VACANCY: Join the adventure with us as a historical re-enactor at the Saluting Battery in Valletta and Fort Rinella in Kalkara on full and part-time basis. The job includes, wearing smart uniforms, armour, marching, firing guns and other military training experience. Uniforms and training will be provided. Good remuneration is offered. Age: from 16 to 65 years. Interested candidates are to send their written CV to [email protected] only.

06/08/2021

TRIBUTE ❗VINCENZO ANASTAGI❗Fra Vincenzo Anastagi was an Italian Knight who participated in the Siege of Malta (1565). Sallying with about a hundred cavalry from Mdina, he led a surprise cavalry charge against the Turkish camp on August 7th, while the main Turkish force was engaged in an assault on Birgu and Senglea. The Turks had ringed Birgu and Senglea with some 65 siege guns and subjected the town to what was probably the most sustained bombardment in history up to that time. On this occasion, the Turks breached the town walls and it seemed that the siege was over, but unexpectedly the invaders retreated. As it happened, the cavalry commander Captain Vincenzo Anastagi, on his daily sortie from Mdina. The Turks, thinking the Christian relief had arrived from Sicily, broke off their assault. The assault would have likely succeeded were it not for the intervention of Anastagi's cavalry that created a confusion in the Turkish rear.
In the words of a modern historian: "Malta survived on 7 August purely through Anastagi's lucky strike". Photoshoot organised in collaboration with Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna Christopher Azzopardi Photography Medievaldesign.com - Costumes-Accessories The Art of Sewing