It is located in the eastern part of the north wall of the town and in Hospitaller times was manned by the tongue of the Northern French. It protects the round tower dedicated to the saint and is a reduced-scale model of the first building phase of Fort St Nicholas. It measures about 33 metres across and is supplied with a row of radially-disposed gunports slightly higher that the floor of the moat. Its wallwalk is protected by a parapet pierced by loopholes for smaller guns. The bulwark was built by Catalan grand master Pere Ramon Zacosta (1461-7) and funded by pope Pius II (1458-64); therefore its construction dates from c. 1461 -1464. A drawbridge on the northeast face of the bulwark gave access to the wallwalk of a stretch of wall that reached the sea, protecting the innermost part of Mandraki Harbour used by the Arsenal.
The firepower of this post covered this part of Mandraki as well as the northern entrance to the moat. The central tower, 13 metres in diameter, contains a spiral staircase connecting its platform to a room within and reaches down to the moat. A relief figure of saint Peter is mounted on the north face of the tower above a moulded frame containing the arms of pope Pius II (cross with five crescents), the Order of the Hospital and Zacosta.
The tower with its bulwark probably replaced an older square tower, perhaps dating from the reign of Heredia. Remnants of strong older masonry, preserved in the fill of the bulwark, probably belong to the advance-wall of the Byzantine period. From the tower platform the defenders could also cover the slope beyond the moat as well as the bulwark itself, in case the enemy managed to occupy it.
We ignore the width of the moat when the bulwark was built; but the masonry revetment of the counterscarp is most likely the work of Zacosta's successor, grand master Orsini (1467-76).
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