Historic Malta

As part of the deal that has allowed me to explore the battlefields from Rachel’s base in Maastricht, Netherlands while she teaches at the NATO school, we have gone somewhere a bit warmer and much sunnier for Christmas. Last year we had an excellent tour of Croatia and this year we toured Malta and Sicily. Malta was my idea mostly because of its importance in WW2, and Rachel tacked on Sicily as her 2024 New Year’s Resolution was to NOT be in the Netherlands at New Year’s.  The normally staid and practical Dutch go absolutely berserk with fireworks (Rachel’s least favourite thing) setting them off anywhere at any time. The body count for this New Year’s Eve was 8,292 incidents, 1,162 injuries, 245 arrests and 2 deaths.

The history and architecture of Malta is so stunning that this post will deal with the earlier times and a separate post will cover the critical role of Malta in the Second World War.

Malta

Malta is located 60 miles south of Sicily and 160 miles north of Africa, so is a key location for controlling shipping in the Mediterranean. Its key location has seen the occupation of the islands for millennia.

Malta is an archipelago of islands, the largest being Malta, with Comino and Gozo being the other occupied islands.

Malta has a very long history, the earliest indication of settlement was in 5200 BC, with some of the earliest temples dating from 3600 BC.

Around 1600 BC, the Phoenicians (from present day Lebanon) settled in Malta and built on the current day site of Mdina. The Carthaginians (from Tunisia) arrived about 500BC and introduced terracing of the hilly land, and the use of olive trees based on their experience farming in very arid climates.

The Romans conquered Malta in 218BC, and in 60AD, St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta and is credited with the spreading of Christianity. The Vandals pillaged Malta in 500 AD and were quickly dispatches by the Byzantines (part of the Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople). The Byzantines built many of the churches that are still present today and walled many of the cities including Mdina.

In 870 AD, Malta was invaded by Arabs, and the island converted to Islam. Many of the churches were left to deteriorate. During their rule, they were responsible for introducing many new agricultural methods and practices. They also introduced a great variety of new plants, including oranges, lemons, olives, melons, apricots, and carobs. They also reduced the size of Mdina and improved its walled defences.

In 1091, the Normans captured Malta and reintroduced Christianity. The Normans fostered trade, and Malta became a strategic port in the Mediterranean. The Maltese language is based in Arabic but is heavily influenced by Italian and English words. It is the only Arabic language to be written in the Roman Alphabet, with a few bonus letters thrown in to accommodate the unique Maltese sounds. This means it looks like you can read the words, but you have zero chance of pronouncing the words correctly. Fortunately, English is the other official language of Malta, and virtually everyone can communicate in English.

In 1249, Malta came under the influence of Naples. In 1530, King Charles V of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor at the time granted Malta to the Knights Hospitaller of St John’s. They had originally provided aided to Christian Pilgrams in the Holy land. They had expanded their role to protecting Christians throughout Europe. They built many fortresses and fortified cities across Malta and Gozo, transforming the islands into one of the most heavily defended areas in Europe at the time. They constructed the walled city of Valletta, the current day capital of Malta.

The French took Malta in 1798 after supposedly stopping in Malta for water. The Knights of St John were not permitted to wage war against fellow Catholics so were easily taken. The French were very unpopular with the Maltese as they took Religious Artefacts and stripped the churches of the Gold Leaf, so after a short time they asked the British for assistance and after a blockade the Brits took over in 1800 and remained on the island until the Maltese achieved independence in 1964.

Shipwreck of St Paul

In 60 AD St Paul was being taken back to Rome to face trial by the Emperor and along the way he was shipwrecked in a violent storm. Both the prisoners and the soldiers swam ashore and were welcomed by the Maltese. Sitting around a fire, St Paul was bitten by a venomous snake but did not suffer any ill effects as commemorated in the statue of the St Paul’s snake.

The Maltese thought he must be a god and was taken to Publius, the chief of the island. St Paul also healed Publius’ father, performed other miracles and preached the gospel. He was only on Malta for 3 months before being taken to Rome and executed, but obviously being a very smooth salesman, was responsible for the spread of Christianity. Malta is now home to more than 365 churches, one for every day of the year, and one of the most religious countries on earth.

The Cathedral of St Paul was built in the 12th century over the former site of Publius’ palace in Mdina and a previous church. The church was largely destroyed by the great earthquake of 1693 and the current Baroque Church was finished in 1705, incorporating the choir and sacristy from the former church.

The interior of the church is magnificent packed with religious relics and gorgeous paintings.

The floor is covered with intricate marble inlayed tombstones of bishops, priests and notable lay people of Mdina.

Mdina

The city of Mdina is the ancient capital of Malta and was first established at the current site around 1600 BC. The present-day layout was established around 800AD and the fortifications strengthened throughout the ages. This site was chosen on a hill since most of the island of Malta is visible from the walled city.

Sweeping views of Malta as seen from the parapets.

Like most of Malta, Mdina, the Silent City is constructed of limestone. In southern Malta, the limestone layer is 100m thick and was one of the few natural building materials available. The gate into Mdina shows the intricate carvings in the limestone.

The interior of Mdina is all limestone.

Only the 300 people who live in Mdina are allowed to drive cars in the city, so the narrow street traffic is mostly pedestrian and horse and buggy.

The narrow side streets with high walls show why it’s called the Silent City.

Mdina is a magnificently preserved ancient city and is a must see on the tour of Malta.

The Knights of St John

The knights of the Hospitaller of St John were formed in Jerusalem in 1043 AD to provide care for the Christian Pilgrims. After the first Crusades around 1099 they became a military organization to protect the pilgrims. The members took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, blending religious devotion with military functions. In those days the nobleman’s first son became the heir, the second son became a soldier and the third son a priest. In 1293 the Knights were forced from the Holy Land and eventually ended up on the island of Rhodes in Greece. In 1522 they were forced from Rhodes by the Ottomans and spent 8 years wandering the Mediterranean until Charles V of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor, granted the Knights Malta. The Emperor liked birds, so the price was one Falcon a year, hence the term Maltese Falcon. It wasn’t a unique sub-species, just a Falcon who lived on Malta.

The knights were from 8 separate regions of Europe: Provence (Southern France), Auvergne (Central France), France (Northern France), Aragon (Spain), Italy, Germany (part of the Holy Roman Empire), Castille and Portugal and England. The 8 langues (tongues) were represented by the 8-pointed Maltese Cross.

The symbol is prevalent throughout Malta.

Great Siege of Malta 1565

The knights had built Fort St Elmo on the tip of what would become Valletta in 1552(no 5 on the map), and fortified Fort St Angelo (no 9) to protect the Grand Harbour. The Knights had been threatening shipping of the Ottoman Empire so in May 1565 the Ottomans attacked with a force of 40,000. The Knights and their allies had a force of around 6,000 men, including 500 knights, Maltese militia, and Spanish and Italian troops.

The Knights fought valiantly, resisting repeated Ottoman attacks. They eventually lost Ft St Elmo, but Ft St Angelo held leading to a war of attrition. In September 1565, the King of Spain sent an additional 8,000 troops to break the deadlock. The Ottomans lost 25,000 troops to 2,500 losses for the Knights. The defeat marked the beginning of the decline of Ottoman dominance in the Mediterranean and bolstered European morale in subsequent conflicts.

The Knights also decided to more heavily fortify the harbour by creating the Walled City of Valletta named after Grand Master Jean de Vallette who became a hero and symbol of Christian Resistance.

The leader of the Knights was called the Grand Master. It was tradition to select a very old and very wealthy person to become Grand Master as they left their fortune to the Knights and their age ensured there would be quick turnover. The knights took a vow of poverty, but had no problem helping rich patrons spend their money on beautiful buildings and priceless treasures.

Valletta Walled City

The construction of Valletta began immediately after the Great Siege of 1565. The massive walls (up to 30 m thick in places) were built first, then the city was laid out in a grid form with several wide streets for ventilation and transport of troops. The city is built on limestone, and the buildings were built with flat roofs and underground cisterns to store water. They also dug extensive tunnels under the buildings, to provide a safe escape in case of invasion. A view of Valletta from Fort St Elmo to the city Centre.

View of Valletta from the ferry heading to the Three Cities side of the Grand Harbour.

Valletta has spectacular views from every vantage point and all of the limestone buildings glow in the sunlight.

The Auberge de Castille, originally one of the 8 palaces for the Knights, is now the home of the Maltese Prime Minister. It is generally considered the most beautiful building in Malta, although there is a great deal of competition.

The Grand Masters Palace on St George’s Square is now the home of the Office of the Prime Minister.

All of Malta was relentlessly bombed during the Second World War and over 70 percent of the buildings in Malta were damaged or destroyed. Entire blocks of the city, including historic structures and residential areas, were reduced to rubble. Many of the Knight’s palaces were damaged or destroyed, and the famous opera house was left in ruins. The site now contains outdoor seating as reminder of the destruction. A few of the columns remain.

The prewar view of the Opera House.

The Malta Parliament house was built of the former site of the Malta Train Station that was destroyed in the War. Its modern design was very controversial, but the use of limestone ensured the building blends in with its surroundings. The cladding is meant to represent honeycombs as the name Malta is derived from Melite which means honey. However, the detractors call it the cheese grater.

Around every corner is another magnificent limestone building.

The St John’s CoCathedral (along with St Paul’s in Mdina) was started in 1573 and completed 5 years later.

The interior of the St John’s Co-Cathedral is a stunning display of Baroque Architecture and one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe.

The interior is heavily inlayed with Gold Leaf and features intricately carved figures throughout.

Similar to St Paul’s, the floor is covered with Marble inlayed tiles representing the deceased Knights of St John. I was fascinated with the tiles and suggested they might be an appropriate memorial for me when the time comes. Rachel suggested that dumping my ashes in the Ocean at Shediac and adding my name to the memorial bench there would be more likely.

The Altar is very beautiful and magnificently detailed.

In addition to the main Nave, there are Chapels for each of the 8 Langues. Each of the chapels are uniquely decorated, and feature crypts of their respective Grand Masters.

The church was spectacular and features two Caravaggio paintings. Caravaggio was on the run from Italy where he had murdered a man in an argument. He took the time to paint the Beheading of St John the Baptist, which hangs in the Cathedral.

The Cathedral was the most magnificently decorated building I have seen, and well worth an extended visit. There is always a lineup of visitors, so it is best to go in immediately when it opens.

 The view from the Upper Barrakka Gardens across the Harbour to the fortifications of the Three Cities. At noon and 4 PM, a cannon from the Gardens is fired. This is a very popular, but least dramatic attraction of the city.

Near Ft St Elmo is the Lower Barrakka Gardens which houses the tomb of the unknown soldier, the Siege Bell Memorial (under renovation) and more spectacular views of the Harbour.

The Barrakka Lift is a great way to get from the Harbour to the Upper Barrakka Gardens at the highest point of Valletta. The 60m lift costs 1 euro to ride but is free with a ticket from the ferry.

The sunsets were also spectacular over Malta. This is a view of the Sliema Harbour.

Sunset behind the Triton Fountain (and Christmas Market) just outside the Gates of Valletta.

Christmas in Malta

The Maltese go all out for Christmas. There are giant Christmas trees everywhere and most streets have large, matching decorative light displays. Here is a small sample.

Even the churches are fully decorated with Christmas lights.

Giant trees are placed outside most of the churches.

This side street off of the main drag Merchant Street was #1 with the Instagram crowd. The side streets are very steep, so the tables are placed on min terraces to give you a level dining experience. I always sat on the uphill side, to avoid rolling into the harbour if I had capsized.

The other Christmas decoration was the Nativity scene, they were everywhere. There were scenes in the square, sometimes more than one inside every church and collections of Nativity scenes gathered randomly.

The nativities inside the churches were impressive.

Many churches had multiple nativity scenes, a few are shown.

The miniature scenes were strictly monitored for accuracy.

Gozo Island

We could easily have spent the week in Valletta, discovering history at every turn. One day on our normal route we discovered an ordinary building was in fact a beautiful church only because a priest in a Cassock happened to be standing outside the open door as we passed. Fortunately, we went further afield and did a Jeep tour of Gozo Island, the smaller, less populated island just north of Malta.

We knew Gozo was going to be a cool spot when we docked and there was a horse swimming along side. There is a racetrack on Gozo and one of the stables is close to the harbour, so they bring the horses down for some Aquafit. The trainer jumps on a boat with a long line and takes the horses for a lap of the harbour.

We toured Gozo in a Jeep driven by a local Gozoitan. It is a great way to see the island and hidden locations while avoiding driving and parking on very narrow roads with a complete lack of signs.

Gozo is very hilly and rugged with very little flat terrain. The hills are extensively terraced, and the fields divided up into small sections all fenced with stone to prevent erosion. This view is looking back towards Malta, with the small island of Comino, population 2 and home of the Blue Lagoon, in the middle distance.

Our first stop was the Ġgantija Archaeological Park complex. It contains a unique prehistoric monument situated at the centre of an extraordinary archaeological landscape.

The Neolithic temples were built around 3600BC and are among the oldest known structures, predating the Pyramids and Stonehenge. The temple is in remarkably good condition.

The temple consisted of a number of circular structures.

The circular form is evident from an aerial view, the structure is said to represent the form of a woman.

The temple is built of some gigantic stones, and there are questions how they were moved, particularly up this plateau. The visitors centre contains some spherical rocks that may have been used to move the giant blocks, but a much more endearing story is of the Giantess who carried the stones on her head. She carried her baby in a sling, a basket of flax and beans in her pocket. They saw her carrying stones while eating beans and sorting flax. She no doubt carried a babe in arms as day care was hard to find back in the Neolithic days.

Another artist impression of the Giantess.

We visited the Rotunda St John the Baptist Church in Xewkija that had a walkway around the top, and even better an elevator to get you there. The views from the church were magnificent and highlighted the rugged terrain.

Rachel looking back towards the Ggaintic Temple.

The Citadel at the capital city of Victoria which we visited later that day was also visible.

We did a quick stop to see some Sheep Cheese producers, followed immediately by a visit to a shop that sold the products.

Everywhere you looked the landscape was amazing. We stopped at a fishing village called Xlendi where watch towers guarded the entrance to the bay.

The harbour is surrounded by giant cliffs

For our intrepid hiking friends, there are some awesome paths up the cliffs, we decided to wait for them to send up pictures.

Next up was a stop at San Lawrenz which had a limestone beach with the mandatory cliffs around the bay.

There were cliffs around the beach with a watch tower on top. There were people swimming, but they were very vocal about the cool temperatures.

The tunnel provided an opening to the Sea.

We stopped at yet another beautiful church, at Ta’ Pina National Shrine. In 1575 the apostolic visitor Pietro Dusina was delegated by Pope Gregory XIII to visit the Maltese Islands. In his pastoral visit to the church, he found that it was in a very bad state. He ordered the church to be closed and demolished and its duties passed to the parish church. When demolition began the workman broke his arm while striking the first blow. This was taken as an omen that the chapel should not be demolished.

In 1883, Karmni Grima was walking past the now run down church and heard a voice asking her to recite three "Hail Mary’s". She kept the story quiet for some time but came forward when a number of other people had reported hearing the Virgin Mary telling them to come in and pray. A number of miracles have been attributed to the church, and there is a wall of photos including one of Pope John Paul II. The Caption reads:

On 01 September 1990 when the plane of Pope John Paul II was on its way to Tanzania it approached Malta and developed a technical defect that was in danger of falling. The pilot managed to control the situation and landed in Malta strong and healthy. The Pope, after praying said “THE MADONNA OF PINU SAVED US”.

The current church was consecrated in 1932. Gozo is blessed with 46 churches, and impressive number for a population of 39,000.

The church has lovely carving throughout.

Next, we were off to Victoria to see the Citadel.

Within the Citadel is the Cathedral of the Assumption, rebuilt in 1716. It was elevated to be the Cathedral of Gozo in 1864.

The view of Victoria from the Citadel walls was impressive, you could see all the way to the Sea.

Our driver was obviously very religious, he told me he worked in his local church in his 20s until he had a bad accident and fell from a scaffolding. In the same accident his friend was killed. On our way back to the ferry, he proudly took us by his local parish church in Ghajnsielem, just behind the ferry port.

The church seen from the harbour.

The large Christmas tree in the courtyard was built from 4,000 wine bottles. We volunteered to help grow next year’s tree.

The decorations and light standards were also made from wine bottles.

On the way out, he drove us by his house. It was a wonderfully full day of visiting Gozo. Our jeep was the last to arrive as they cast off as soon as we clambered aboard. On the boat ride back, we were supposed to stop at the Blue Lagoon, but high winds and rough water limited us to a quick drive by.

The jeep tour was the ideal way to tour Gozo, it was great for seeing all the scenery and allowed us to pop into several places the tour buses couldn’t go. Definitely a highlight of our Malta stay.

Malta was a spectacular place, crammed with history and wonderful architecture. The trauma Malta went through in the Second World War will be my next post.