As the regular grid plan of Valletta still indicates, the town was a planned foundation, laid out after the Great Siege of Malta by the Turks in May-September 1565. Although the Knights of St John, who had been granted possession of the Maltese Islands in 1530, successfully beat off the attack by greatly superior Turkish forces, it was recognized that the rebuilding of the existing fortifications which had been destroyed or severely damaged during the siege - Fort St Elmo, at the tip of the then unbuilt-on Sciberras Peninsula; Fort St Angelo, fronting the Knights' Headquarters in Birgu (now Vittoriosa); and Fort St Michael, on the peninsula now occupied by Senglea - would be inadequate to provide protection against a further Turkish attack. Accordingly the then Grand Master of the Order of St John, Jean Parisot de la Valette, founded the town of Valletta which bears his name on March 28, 1566 in order to secure the defense of Grand Harbor. The site on Mount Sciberras, above Fort St Elmo, was selected as the one offering the best strategic qualities. The plans were drawn up by Francesco Laparelli de Cortona, one of the finest military engineers of the time, who had been sent to Malta by Pope Pius IV in recognition of the Knights achievement in defending the Christian cause. Thanks to the contributions which poured in from all over Europe, Laparelli was able to ravert to an earlier plan which had previously been turned down on financial grounds, and within three years the work of building the town was so far advanced that Laparelli left its completion to his assistant Gerolamo Cassar. Cassar was responsible for the construction of auberges ("inns") in Renaissance style occupied by Knights of different nations (of which only four still survive), the Grand Master's Palace, St Johns Co-Cathedral and the Verdala Palace at Rabat. Most of the older buildings of Valletta, however, were erected in the Early Baroque style, which reached Malta from Italy about 1650 and left its mark on the architecture of the whole of Malta. The best-known architects of this period were Lorenzo Gets (1630-1704), Giovanni Barbara (1660-1730) and Giuseppe Bonnici (1707 about 1780). After 1722 the Iberian style came increasingly to the fore, for from then untiI 1775 the Order of St John was headed by Grand Masters from Spain and Portugal. Under their rule Domenico Cachia (1710-90) rebuilt Cassar's Auberge de Castille, with a sumptuous facade which reflects the prosperity of Valletta and the whole of the Maltese Archipelago in the closing years of the Knights rule. This era, however, came to an end under a Grand Master of German origin. Ferdinand von Hompesch (from 1797) surrendered Valletta without offering any resistance when Napoleon Bonaparte sailed into Grand Harbor with a French fleet in 1798 on his way to Egypt. On June 18 of that year all members of the Order of St John were compelled to leave Malta; but French rule lasted only two years, for in 1800 Valletta was occupied by British forces. Under the Treaty of Paris (1814) Britain was given possession of the whole group of islands, which became a Crown Colony; and until the middle of the 2Oth century Valletta was one of the major British naval bases. During World War II the town suffered heavy damage from air attacks by the Axis Powers. In 1964 it became capital of the independent State of Malta.