Malta is beautiful! The sandstone buildings contrasting with
the blue sky above and the ocean blue creates a magical scene. Traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, is
relatively light and the locals are friendly and helpful. And although Valletta and its surrounds are
relatively compact, there is a general aura of spaciousness about it all. We wandered up to the centre of Valletta and
bought our Malta Heritage Passes, which give us access to all the major
attractions, and then set off in earnest.
First stop was the Grand Master’s Palace, built from 1574 to house the
Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers of St John. Under British rule it was the governor’s
palace and it now houses the office of the presidents of Malta, although
sections are available for access by the public, including the State Rooms
which we visited – very opulent, with magnificent art works, tapestries and
frescoed ceilings. We also visited the Armoury with its impressive display of
over 5,000 articles of war – suits of armour, crossbows, swords and pikes, firearms
and cannons.
After a brief stop for our elevenses we continued on to Fort
Elmo, which guarded the entrance to the Marsamxett and the Grand Harbours from
1552 until recent times. The many rooms,
including the prison cells, the St Anne Chapel and the barracks around the main
quadrangle have been converted to a stunning National War Museum, tracing the
history of Malta, particularly its military history, from antiquity up to World
War II. We were also able to see the George
Cross, the highest British Honours award to civilians, awarded to the people of
Malta by King George VI on 15 April 1942, at the height of the siege of Malta
by the German and Italian forces. Malta
withstood a monumental air and naval barrage over several months; in just five
weeks in March and April 1942 the Luftwaffe dropped 6,500 tons of bombs on
Malta, almost as much as was dropped on the whole of Britain at the height of
the Battle of Britain in September 1940.
Much of the population was forced to live underground and they were perilously
short of food and water (supplies had to be brought in by British submarines),
but they did not surrender. The
presentation of the George Cross is also commemorated in a plaque on the wall
of the Palace.
The fort also provides stunning views across the harbour
from the fortified walls and after leaving the fort we stopped to climb to the
top of a bell tower erected by the British government to commemorate all those
lost in World War II. After lunch at a
nearby café we caught the ferry across to Vittoriosa, an ancient city adorned
with beautiful churches. We visited the
Malta Maritime Museum, depicting Malta’s maritime history and displaying many
large models of sea craft down through the centuries.
Next a bus ride to Paolo, then a long walk to Tarxien to
visit the ancient temples extant there.
They are the most complex and intricately decorated of the several
prehistoric temple sites on Malta, erected between 3600BC and 2500BC and later
used by Bronze Age inhabitants as a cremation site. Some of the limestone blocks used in the
construction of the several temples were up to two metres high, a metre wide
and two-thirds of a metre thick. It
would have been an enormous challenge to shape them and move them into
place. The whole site, approximately
half an acre, is protected by a huge, brilliantly-engineered shade sail.
Another bus ride, back to Valletta, then a bit of a walk
back to our digs, stopping en route to ogle at the Sanctuary Basilica of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel, a beautiful, large, circular church with a high, wide
dome reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome.
Tomorrow – more of Valletta and surrounds.
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