Malta
Victoria Lines Fortifications
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- Full Name
- Victoria Lines Fortifications (ID: 1114)
- Country
- Malta
- Status
-
On tentative list 1998
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History of Victoria Lines Fortifications
- Criteria
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- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
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UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org
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To make it clear from the start: I think the Victoria Lines are a bad idea for a WHS. For my visit, I drove up to the Targa Batteries (which are signposted). It is the only part where some conservation efforts have been done by private enthusiasts. A friendly guy had me have a look around, but the gun positions are still just an overgrown pile of stones. This is private ground and not really open for tourists. The three main forts of the line all seem to be completely closed to tourists, so this is still the best possibility to see some of the fortification works up close. There is a path going along the fortification wall in the direction of Fort Bingemma, which actually makes for a nice hike. I walked along it for roughly one hour until I arrived at some intermediate hill battery, and you can see all three forts and more or less the complete fortification line from there. You can also see that there is not much to see of the fortifications. The views of the countryside are nice, though.
Though I had a good time hiking there, with no other tourists around and plenty of beautiful wilderness, I still think that this site definitely does not belong to the list. Now, purely military buildings are always a tough sell. In this case, it is even worse:
- The buildings have no aesthetic qualities, nor were ever intended to have any.
- The …