It was built during the tenure of Jean Parisot de Valette, after the Order of St. John unsuccessfully tried to requisition the nearby Gauci Tower in 1548 to serve as the captain's residence.

The Captain's Tower is one of the earliest Hospitaller fortifications in Malta.

[2] The tower consists of a square plan with three floors.

It contains a number of box machicolations, and a columbaria which housed carrier pigeons to relay messages to Mdina or Valletta.

The tower and the house built with it were used as a temporary hospital during the plague epidemic of 1675-6.