Sights in Malta
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St John’s Co-Cathedral
Malta’s most impressive church, St John’s Co-Cathedral was designed by the architect Gerolamo Cassar. It was built between 1573 and 1578 as the conventual church of the Knights of St John. It took over from the Church of St Lawrence in Vittoriosa as the place where the Knights would gather for communal worship. It was raised to a status equal to that of St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina – the official seat of the Archbishop of Malta – by a papal decree of 1816, hence the term ‘co-cathedral’.
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Hal Saflieni Hypogeum
The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is an incredible underground necropolis, discovered during building work in 1902. It consists of halls, chambers and passages hewn out of the living rock and covering some 500 sq metres; it is thought to date from around 3600 to 3000 BC, and an estimated 7000 bodies may have been interred here. Excellent 50-minute tours of the complex are available daily at 9am, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. Note that the tours aren’t suitable for children aged under six.
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Malta Experience
The Malta Experience is a somewhat pricey 45-minute audiovisual presentation that provides a good introduction to Malta, especially for first-time visitors. The film is available in 13 languages; it showcases the country’s long history and highlights many of its scenic attractions. Screenings begin on the hour from 11am to 4pm Monday to Friday, and from 11am to 1pm on weekends and public holidays (with an extra 2pm show from October till June).
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Casa Rocca Piccola
The 16th-century palazzo Casa Rocca Piccola is the elegant family home of the Marquis de Piro. The marquis has opened part of the palazzo to the public and guided tours on the hour (10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday) give a unique insight into the privileged lifestyle of the aristocracy.
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State Apartments
From the public entry to the Grand Master's Palace on Triq il-Merkanti it's possible to visit the State Apartments; note that the apartments are closed from time to time when official state visits are taking place. Heritage Malta conducts guided tours (included in the cost of admission) of the apartments at 10:30, 12:30 and 14:30 daily; tours and times are not set in stone, so it may be worth making advance enquiries.
A staircase past the Armoury entrance provides access to the State Apartments. Only a few rooms are open to the public, depending on what is currently being used. The long Armoury Corridor, decorated with trompe l'oeil painting, scenes of naval battles, blue…
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Armoury
From the public entry to the Grand Master's Palace on Triq il-Merkanti it's possible to visit the Armoury (and the State Apartments). Heritage Malta conducts guided tours (included in the cost of admission) of the Armoury daily; tours and times are not set in stone, so it may be worth making advance enquiries.
The Armoury is now housed in what was once the Grand Master's stables. The armour and weapons belonging to the Knights were once stored at the Palace Armoury (now the Great Hall used by the parliament), and when a Knight died they became the property of the Order. The current collection of over 5000 suits of 16th- to 18th-century armour is all that remains of an ori…
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Fort St Elmo
At the furthest point of Valletta and guarding the entrance to both Marsamxett and Grand Harbours is Fort St Elmo, named after the patron saint of mariners. Although now much altered and extended, this was the fort that bore the brunt of Turkish arms during the Great Siege of 1565. It was built by the Knights in 1552 to guard the entrances to the harbours on either side of the Sceberras Peninsula. The courtyard outside the entrance to the fort is studded with the lids of underground granaries.
Today Fort St Elmo is home to the Malta police academy and is open to the public only for historical reenactments, held at 11:00 on most Sunday mornings except during the peak summe…
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Lascaris War Rooms
WWII history boffins should make time to visit the Lascaris War Rooms. These chambers, hewn out of the solid rock beneath Lascaris Bastion, housed the headquarters of the Allied air and naval forces during WWII, and were used as the control centre for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.
The rooms are a little tricky to find. Your best option is to walk south from Pjazza Kastilja along Triq Girolamo Cassar and look for the path on the right (signposted) that leads down into the Great Ditch beneath St James' Bastion and doubles back under the road to the entry. Once inside, you take a self-guided audio tour through the operations rooms. You'll need to us…
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Fort Rinella
Built by the British in the late 19th century, Fort Rinella, 1.5km northeast of Vittoriosa, was one of two coastal batteries designed to counter the threat of Italy’s new ironclad battleships. The batteries (the second one was on Tigné Point in Sliema) were equipped with the latest Armstrong 100-tonne guns – the biggest muzzle-loading guns ever made. Their 100-tonne shells had a range of 6.4km and could penetrate 38cm of armour plating. The guns were never fired in anger, and were retired in 1906. Fort Rinella has been restored by a group of amateur enthusiasts from the Malta Heritage Trust and is now one of Malta’s most interesting military museums. Guided tours giv…
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Malta Aviation Museum
Tucked away in an unassuming shed between Ta’Qali Crafts Village and the National Stadium is the remarkable Malta Aviation Museum, 2km northeast of Mdina. It’s a real enthusiast’s museum, with bits of engines, airframes and instruments lying around, and numerous restoration projects under way – including a Fairey Swordfish and a De Havilland Tiger Moth. You can watch locals working on the aircraft and other exhibits. Stars of the show here are a WWII Spitfire Mk IX and a Hawker Hurricane IIa, salvaged in 1995 after 54 years at the bottom of the sea off Malta’s southwest coast; other aircraft on display include a vintage Flying Flea, a De Havilland Vampire T11, a Fiat G9…
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Tarxien Temples
The Tarxien Temples, pronounced tar-sheen, are hidden up a back street several blocks east of the Hypogeum – keep your eyes peeled, as the entrance is inconspicuous. These megalithic structures were excavated in 1914 and are thought to date from between 3600 and 2500 BC; they are probably the most interesting and accessible of all Malta’s ancient temples. There are four linked structures, built with massive stone blocks up to 3m by 1m by 1m in size, decorated with spiral patterns and pitting, and reliefs of animals including bulls, goats and pigs. The large statue of a broad-hipped female figure was found in the right-hand niche of the first temple. This is another herita…
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Cathedral Museum
The first bay in the south aisle of St John’s gives access to the Cathedral Museum. The first room is the Oratory, built in 1603 as a place of worship and for the instruction of novices. It is dominated by the altarpiece, The Beheading of St John the Baptist (c 1608) by Caravaggio, one of the artist’s most famous and accomplished paintings. The executioner – reaching for a knife to finish off the job that his sword began – and Salome with her platter are depicted with chilling realism (note that the artist signed his name in the blood seeping from St John’s severed neck). On the east wall hangs St Jerome, another of Caravaggio’s masterpieces.
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San Anton Palace & Gardens
The San Anton Palace & Gardens lies between Attard and Lija. The palace was built in the early 17th century as the country mansion of Grand Master Antoine de Paule. It later served as the official residence of the British Governor of Malta, and is now the official residence of the Maltese president. You can cop a lungful of cleanish air inside the lovely walled gardens that stretch between the palace and the main entrance on Triq Birkirkara; they contain groves of citrus and avocado, as well as a bird aviary. The Eagle Fountain, just inside the main gate, dates from the 1620s. The Mask Fountain is surrounded by unusual floss-silk trees with thick, thorn-studded trunks and…
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National War Museum
Commemorating the country’s ordeal during WWII, Malta’s National War Museum is housed in the northwest corner of Fort St Elmo. The collection of relics, photographs and equipment includes the Gloster Gladiator biplane called Faith (minus wings), the jeep Husky used by General Eisenhower, and the wreckage of a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter aircraft recovered from the seabed. The pictures of bomb damage in Valletta give some idea of the amount of rebuilding that was needed after the war. Pride of place goes to the replica George Cross medal that was awarded to the entire population of Malta in 1942.
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Royal Opera House
On the main street, Triq ir-Repubblika you'll pass the cracked steps and shattered column stumps of the ruined Royal Opera House. This once imperious building was built in the 1860s, but was destroyed during a German air raid in 1942. Its gutted shell has been left as a reminder of the war and is rather unceremoniously used as a car park while controversy rages as to what should be done with the site. The most recent proposal is to transform the ruins into a permanent open-air performance space.
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St James’ Cavalier Centre for Creativity
The St James’ Cavalier has undergone a remarkable transformation from a 16th-century fortification into a bright, modern arts centre. Inside the St James’ Cavalier Centre for Creativity are a couple of exhibition spaces (with a bias towards the contemporary art scene), a theatre-in-the-round where live music and theatre performances are held and a cinema showing arthouse films. It’s worth stopping in to check out the interesting interior and to grab a programme of what’s on.
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Saluting Battery
The Saluting Battery, where a cannon once fired salutes to visiting naval vessels. The battery has been restored, and a cannon is fired every day at noon. The guided tours show how the cannon is loaded and fired, and there are displays on the history of time-keeping and signalling. (The gardens, the battery and a whole network of tunnels within the St Peter and Paul Bastion are being restored to house a museum and other displays; it should be open to the public in 2011.)
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Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck
The moody Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck dates from the 16th century and houses many treasures, including a dazzling gilded statue of St Paul, carved in Rome in the 1650s and carried shoulder-high through the streets of Valletta on the saint’s feast day (10 February). There’s also a golden reliquary containing some bones from the saint’s wrist, and part of the column on which he is said to have been beheaded in Rome.
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Manoel Theatre
The 600-seat Manoel Theatre, Malta’s national theatre, was built in 1731 and is one of the oldest theatres in Europe. Take an entertaining guided tour (conducted in English, French, Italian and German) to see the restored baroque auditorium with its gilt boxes and huge chandelier. Tours begin at 10.30am, 11.30am and 2.30pm Monday to Friday, and 1.30pm Saturday. Tickets cost €4 and include admission to the theatre’s small museum.
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Great Siege of Malta & the Knights of St John
One heavily promoted exhibition is the Great Siege of Malta & the Knights of St John, beside the entry to the Bibliotheca. It advertises a ‘state-of-the-art 3D walk-through adventure’ but quite frankly doesn’t live up to the hype. For the steep admission fee you get a 45-minute, sometimes-tedious self-guided audio tour through re-creations of battle scenes from the 1565 siege.
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Knights Hospitallers exhibition
At the Sacra Infermeria, a 16th-century hospital of the Order of St John, surgeons performed advanced operations as well as the more routine amputations and treatment of war wounds. A pretty lacklustre Knights Hospitallers exhibition, with an entrance across the street from the Malta Experience, records the achievements of these medieval medics.
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Toy Museum
Opposite Casa Rocca Piccola is the small Toy Museum, housing an impressive private collection of model planes and boats from the 1950s, as well as Matchbox cars, farmyard animals, train sets and dolls. The collection is generally in glass display cabinets, so this place is better suited to nostalgic adults than hyperactive ankle-biters.
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Auberge de Castille
On Pjazza Kastilja, pause to admire the façade of the Auberge de Castille, designed by the architect Andrea Belli in 1741. It adorns a 16th-century building that was once the home of the Spanish and Portuguese langue of the Knights of St John, but now houses the offices of the Maltese prime minister (not open to the public).
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National Museum of Fine Arts
Occupying Admiralty House, Malta’s National Museum of Fine Arts is a baroque palazzo that was used as the official residence of the admiral commander- in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet from the 1820s until 1961. Lord Louis Mountbatten also had his headquarters here in the early 1950s.
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Wartime Experience
The Wartime Experience is a worthwhile 45-minute show made up of archive film from WWII, which movingly records the ordeal suffered by the Maltese during the siege of 1940–43. It’s shown at the Embassy Cinemas inside the Embassy Complex daily at 10am, 11am, noon and 1pm.
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