The directory «Plots»

Wignacourt Alof de
(1547—1622)

Wignacourt was Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John from 1601 to 1622. He was of the langue of France. His reign was notable for the construction of a number of coastal fortifications (the Wignacourt towers), and of the aqueduct that brought water from the plateau above Rabat to Valletta. His parade armor survives and is one of the treasures of the Palace Armoury in Valletta. He was a patron of the painter Caravaggio.

The rule of Alof de Wignacourt witnessed several brilliant naval exploits against the Turks. Successful descents were made upon Patras, Lepanto in the Morea, Lango in Rhodes, Liazzo, and Corinth, and the amount of booty which the Order reaped from these expeditions was something enormous. Infuriated by these depredations, Mahomet III., then Sultan of Constantinople, determined at all costs to assume the offensive. Death, however, cut short Mahomet's project. In 1615 a descent on Malta was attempted during the reign of Achmet II, which resulted in the Turks being ignominiously defeated

Whilst hunting in the grounds at Verdalle on the 27th August 1622 Wignacourt was seized with an attack of apoplexy, and lingered on to the 14th September of that year, when he died at the age of seventy-five,

Malta, 1956, Wignacourt aqueduct horsetrouth

Malta, 1977, Alof de Wignacourt's Armours

S. M. O. M., 1979, Alof de Wignacourt

S. M. O. M., 1981, Alof de Wignacourt

S. M. O. M., 1991, Arms of Alof de Wignacourt

S. M. O. M., 1993, Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt (c.1607—1608)

S. M. O. M., 2001, Alof de Wignacourt