Lascaris Battery

Lascaris Battery
Batterija ta' Lascaris
Part of the fortifications of Valletta
Valletta, Malta
Lascaris Battery, with the Saluting Battery and the Upper Barrakka Gardens in the background
Map of Lascaris Battery and St. Peter & Paul Bastion
Coordinates	35°53′40.16″N 14°30′46.67″E / 35.8944889°N 14.5129639°E / 35.8944889; 14.5129639
Type	Artillery battery
Site information
Owner	Government of Malta
Condition	Intact
Site history
Built	1854–1856
Built by	British Empire
Materials	Limestone
Battles/wars	World War II

Lascaris Battery (Maltese: Batterija ta' Lascaris), also known as Fort Lascaris (Maltese: Forti Lascaris) or Lascaris Bastion (Maltese: Sur ta' Lascaris), is an artillery battery located on the east side of Valletta, Malta. The battery was built by the British in 1854, and it is connected to the earlier St. Peter & Paul Bastion of the Valletta Land Front. In World War II, the Lascaris War Rooms were dug close to the battery, and they served as Britain's secret headquarters for the defence of the island.

When the British took over the Maltese islands in 1800, they used the fortifications built by the Order of St. John almost without alterations. Under the military theory of the time, the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean was regarded as the most reliable protection against invasion. However, during his time as governor, Sir William Reid ordered gun batteries to be added inside the Grand Harbour, in order to repel any ships which broke through the cordon of Fort St. Elmo and Fort St. Angelo and penetrated the harbour. Construction of Lascaris Battery therefore began in 1854, on the site of Ġnien is-Sultan, a garden that had been built by Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris. The battery was thus named after this Grand Master.

During the Second World War, the Lascaris War Rooms were dug under the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the casemates of the Lascaris Battery, into rock. The network of underground tunnels and chambers located 150 feet (46 m) below the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery were used as “The War Rooms” of Britain’s War HQ in Malta. The facility later housed the headquarters of the Allied invasion of Sicily during mid-1943.