The island of Comino

View to Saint Mary’s Tower, a fortified stone watchtower, built in 1618 to defend Comino from Barbary pirates who attacked ships sailing between Malta and Gozo. It also was a communications link between the two islands in case of an attack. In the 17th century, Knights who were convicted of minor crimes were sometimes sentenced to the lonely and dangerous task of manning the tower. During the French occupation of 1798–1800, Maltese insurgents and their British allies imprisoned suspected spies or French sympathisers here.