The windmills that once stood close to St Francis Ravelin / Sarria Street (Floriana).
History of the windmills that once stood in Floriana, close to St Francis Ravelin / Sarria Street (built c. 1670 and since demolished).
Short summary
Two tower windmills were built in Floriana (in the area of St Francis Ravelin / Sarria Street) around c. 1670 (often credited to the Cottoner foundation/period). Both were recorded on 17th–18th-century plans and later demolished; little of their fabric survives but their locations persist in historic maps and street-names.
1. Historical context — why windmills in Floriana (mid-/late-1600s)
Floriana grew up as the outer defensive suburb outside Valletta after the Floriana Lines were laid out (from c.1634 onward). As the suburb and garrison population increased, there was demand for local milling of grain. Placing windmills on the higher bastions and ridges around the harbour provided reliable wind and short travel distances for bread production.
In addition to ordinary milling, some urban windmills in the harbour area were linked to gunpowder production/storage (a reason for locating mills near defensible works or under military control). Scholarship on Maltese windmills’ uses discusses both food and military-related milling in the harbour towns.
2. Construction — date, patronage and form
Date: Contemporary and later catalogs place the Floriana mills c. 1670 (often described as “late 17th century”). The exact build contract or notarial act is not published online, but multiple specialist lists and a recent scholarly survey record that date.
Patronage: The surviving lists attribute these mills to foundations active in that generation (the Cottoner foundation is named in catalogues for several 17th-century mills). This fits the pattern: Grand-Master-sponsored or foundation mills were common in that era.
Form & siting: They were tower (round) windmills — compact stone towers sited adjacent to the Floriana defences (the ravelin / Sarria area), taking advantage of elevation and line of sight. One source describes them as “mound mills / round” in typology.
3. Use during their working life
Primary function: local grain milling (flour/meal) for Floriana/Valletta households and possibly for provisioning the garrison. Such mills served both civilian and military communities close to the Grand Harbour.
Possible military role: academic work on windmills and gunpowder production in Malta notes windmills were sometimes sited close to military works and could be used in processes connected with explosives — this raises the possibility that at least one Floriana mill had an associated military-industrial role, though specific documentary proof for these two mills is not clearly published online.
4. Later history, decline and demolition
Survival into modern mapping: The mills are recorded in 18th–19th-century maps and in 19th-century catalogues of Maltese windmills; by the 19th and 20th centuries they are described as demolished in windmill registers and local histories. One Floriana mill location later became part of the Robert Samut Square area (also recorded as demolished).
Likely reasons for demolition: urban expansion of Floriana/Valletta, changing milling technology (steam and industrial mills), and infrastructural works to the fortified lines and roads led to the removal of small urban windmills across the harbour towns. Exact demolition dates for the St Francis Ravelin / Sarria Street mills are not published in the online sources I checked.