ever, Philip, duke of Burgundy, having made a gift. of 12,000 gold crowns for the strengthening of the defences of the island, the Grand-Master determined to lose no further time in securing this salient point. It received the name of Fort Nicholas, from the fact that a small chapel dedicated to that saint[1] stood there, and was included in the enceinte of the work. In the eventful sieges to which the course of events will shortly bring the history of the Order, this new stronghold became the centre of the desperate struggles which then took place, and was one of the main causes contributing to the success of the defence. The arms of the duke of Burgundy were in gratitude placed over the principal façade. Newton says of this fort: “At the extremity stands the castle of St. Nicholas, built by the Grand-Master Raymond Zacosta. Within this fort are casemates, magazines, and the remains of a chapel. Above these is a platform, on which are many brass guns of the time of the knights, some of which bear the date 1482 (shortly after the first siege), others 1507, with the arms of France and England. This part of the fort seems much in the state in which the knights left it.”
Whilst on this subject it may be well to insert what Newton says of the site of the Colossus: “The mole, at the extremity of which stands the tower of St Nicholas, has been an Hellenic work. The lowest courses of the original masonry remain in several places undisturbed on the native rock, which has been cut in horizontal beds to receive them. At the end of the mole enormous blocks from the ancient breakwater lie scattered about. Two of these are still in position, one above the other. As the celebrated bronze Colossus was doubtless a conspicuous sea mark, if not actually used as a Pharos, my first impression on seeing these immense blocks was that they were the remains of its pedestal, and that it stood where the fort of St. Nicholas now stands. This opinion, suggested originally to my mind by the aspect of the site itself, is corroborated by the testimony of Caoursin, the Vice-Chancellor of the Order, whose contemporary history of the first siege was printed at Ulm as early as 1496. When describing the building of Fort St. Nicholas, he states that it was placed in “molis vertice Septentrionem spectante—
- ↑ St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra and patron saint of sailors.
