Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna gave start to a large-scale revamp of Fort Rinella with the help of funds received from the Good Causes Fund of the Ministry of Finance. This revamp is split in different phases and is intended to better improve the overall visitor quality at this historic site. An average of 45,000 visitors make it to this fort annually.

The first phase of this work consisted in the effective waterproofing of the historic building. So far the general re-pointing of the front of the building has been completed and works are at hand on the exposed faces of the interior of the fort. New replica chimneys and air vents are to be erected on the roof of the fort since these have long been lost. Other works in this line will cover the restoration of all water culverts and storm drains and three water cisterns, one of which can store up to 75,000 gallons of water. Water stored in these cisterns will be used to water the surrounding grounds which are to be landscaped.

As part of the same drive, Fort Rinella will soon have a brand new audio-visual theatre, new public address system, new gift shop and cafeteria. Plans are also at hand to rework the daily historical re-enactments offered at this site during which aspects of the daily life of a late-19th-century garrison are faithfully recreated.

Fort Rinella was built by the British in 1878 for the world’s largest muzzle-loading cannon – the Armstrong 100-ton gun. This gun could fire a one-ton shell up to a distance of eight miles using a quarter of a ton of gunpowder the cost of which totalled £100, which was enough to pay some 2,600 soldiers for a day! It was powered by a novel steam-driven hydraulic set-up which allowed it to load and fire in just six minutes. Fort Rinella is located in Kalkara guarding the eastern approaches of the Grand Harbour. An almost-identical fort also armed with a 100-ton gun and named after the Duke of Cambridge stands at Sliema between forts Sliema and Tignè. Its gun was removed by the military in 1956 to be sold for scrap. Today there are only two Armstrong 100-ton gun that remain extant – the one at Fort Rinella and another at Napier of Magdala Battery in Gibraltar.

Fort Rinella is open daily for public visiting between 10am and 5pm. Guided tours are offered every hour and a full-scale historical re-enactment inclusive of cannon firing starts daily at 2.30pm.