Fort Chambray is a bastioned
fort located in the precincts of
Għajnsielem, on the island of
Gozo,
Malta. It was built in the mid-18th century by the
Order of Saint John, in an area known as Ras it-Tafal, between the port of
Mġarr and
Xatt l-Aħmar. The fort was meant to be the
citadel of a new city which was to replace the
Cittadella as the island's capital, but this plan never materialized.
The fort saw use during the
French invasion of Malta in 1798, and it was subsequently used as a military hospital and mental institution.
Malta and Gozo came under British rule in the beginning of the 19th century, and as a result Fort Chambray was taken over by a British garrison. By 1830, a small military hospital of four wards had been established within the fort. The hospital was expanded during the
Crimean War, and hundreds of wounded soldiers were treated there. The hospital was subsequently used by both the British military and Maltese civilians when there were fever epidemics.
With the outbreak of the
Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882, a large building which had previously been barracks was converted to a hospital in order to house casualties from the war. It was used as a Convalescent Depot during
World War I, and thousands of ill or wounded patients passed through the hospital between October 1915 and its closure in March 1916.
The military gave up the fort in 1916, and from 1934 to 1983 it was used as a civilian mental hospital, housing up to 200 patients. A section of the fort was also used as a
leprosarium between 1937 and 1956, under the name of Sacred Heart Hospital.
Throughout the years that the fort was used as a hospital, three cemeteries were built, one within the fort and two in the ditches. Some of the remains from these cemeteries have been re-interred in Santa Maria Cemetery, Xewkija, Gozo.
Residential units have been built within the fort, and some of the bastions have been restored. Work now appears to have come to a standstill for quite some time.
