Bastion of England

The bastion of England protects the strategically placed round Tower of the Virgin built by grand master Lastic at the west end of the south wall of the town. The tower takes its name from the marble relief of the Virgin and Child set in its southeast side, accompanied by the shields of the Order and the master, with the commemorative inscription Edita est ab incarnato d(omi)no anno m^o cccc xli (1441). The tower was originally detached from the curtain; it was joined to the latter by a two-tier battery built under grand master Orsini (1467-76) to cover the advance-wall.

The plan of the bastion resembles an elongated crescent to the south and west of the tower. The tower and bastion are separated by an inner ditch about 11 metres wide- perhaps the width of the original moat before the construction of the bastion. The heraldry that certainly once existed on the bastion has been lost, but the form of the structure points to the features associated with the work of Aubusson between 1480 and 1503– apart from the heavy protective parapet added  by grand master Fabrizio del Carretto (1513-21).

The east edge of the bastion is occupied by a two-tier battery of Aubusson, an arrangement also encountered in the Bastion of St. John further east. Between the west tip of the Bastion of England and the Embankment of Spain a mere 11 metres to the northwest, is set a low battery covering the moat. Access to the Bastion of England was from a postern on the east side, through the battery of Aubusson. The width of the outer moat around the bastion ranges from  20 to 25 metres.

In the 1480 and 1522 sieges of Rhodes the bastion was defended by the tongue  of England. It was badly damaged in 1522 and was repaired by the victorious Ottomans. An Ottoman inscription mounted on its south flank commemorates the sealing of the nearby Gate of St. athanasius. Exploration of the construction of the bastion is still incomplete; it is likely that its fill conceals remnants of older defensive elements.