Places to visit in Valletta Malta

If you head back towards City Gate, Fountain Street brings you to the beginning of Strait Street (also known as the Gut), a narrow lane which still has some of the bars and hangouts that once gave it a reputation among sailors for low life. It was also the only place where the knights were allowed to fight duels.

A slightly longer walk follows the fortifications, starting along St Sebastian Street with the English Curtain wall on the right and the rather rundown Auberge of the Bav¬arian langue opposite. After St Sebastian Bastion and its spectacular view over Marsamxett Harbour, if you turn up Archbishop Street ¬actually consisting of a flight of steps at this point you'll reach Independence Square. The Auberge d' Aragon here was the first auberge built in Valletta in the 16th century; the Doric porch was added at a later date.

The building of the neoclassical St Paul's Angli¬can Cathedral opposite was entirely paid for by the Dowa¬ger Queen Adelaide after she visited Malta from 1838-39. St Paul's 60m (200ft) high steeple makes a striking land¬mark, rivalled by the huge dome of Carmelite Church nearby on Old Theatre Street, an enlarged replacement for one bombed during the war in 1731 under the rule of Grand Master Manoel de Vil¬hena, is a gem, and one of Europe's oldest theatres still in use. It endured a period of decay after the larger opera house was opened, becoming at one time a doss house (the homeless could sleep in the theatre's boxes for a penny a night) and then a cheap cine¬ma.

The National Theatre Malta and car hire

Now restored as Malta's National Theatre, its neat, oval shape with tiers of gilded and painted boxes makes a splen¬did setting for both plays and concerts. The National Theatre and other places of interest in Malta can be reached by cheap car hire from Luqa Airport. Across the peninsula are several baroque churches: St Roque and St Ursula (both in St Ursula Street) and St Paul Shipwrecked in St Paul Street, an 18th century church with an ornate 19th century facade. Its treasures include a statue of St Paul by Melchiorre Gafil, a wrist bone of the saint, and half of the column on which he was beheaded in Rome.

The National Museum of Fine Arts is on South Street, which crosses Republic Street up near City Gate. The build¬ing is an attractive, white 16th century palace, built around a sunny courtyard. As Admiralty House, it served as the official residence of the Commander¬ in Chief of the British Mediter¬ranean Fleet, a post filled at one time or another by practi¬cally every famous British naval hero as the list inside reminds you.

The collection includes paintings from various periods of the Flemish, Dutch, French and Italian schools, notably some by Mattia Preti, who came to decorate St John's Cathedral and stayed. There are also some fine works by the 20th-century Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortino. The exhibits in the base¬ment evoke the knights' hospi¬tal mission, with apothecary vessels vases and the famous silver are used to serve the patients. Look out too for the early models of fortifications.

Hastings Gardens Malta

Near City Gate (up to the right before you exit) are Hast¬ings Gardens, named after the Marquess of Hastings, who was Governor of Malta from 182426. His funerary statue stands here. From here there is a splendid view of Marsarnxett Harbour, Msida and Lazzaretto creeks, Manoel Island and Dragut Point. Floriana and St Publius Church are below you and Independence Arena is off to the left.

The mountainous bastions of two churches, St Michael and St Andrew, were built up here after the Great Siege and are 1821m (6070ft) thick. Walking back to City Gate, before taking a staircase down, you'll cross the fortifications of St James' Cavalier and St John's Cavalier (where the knights now have their Embassy in Malta).

Next to the tourist informa¬tion office at City Gate, steps lead down into the great 'ditch' that protected Valletta from landward attack. If you make the descent, you'll see the lower level bridge that once carried Malta's short railway, which went as far as Medina until it closed in 1931. The station here is now an un¬derground car park. Along the bottom of the ditch in Lascaris Bastion, the War Rooms have been preserved, complete with uniformed models plotting air battles and the progress of convoys for opening hours.

Floriana and cheap car hire Valletta

Any approach to Valletta by land inevitably goes through the spacious Floriana area, named after Paolo Floriani, the Italian military engineer who recommended that Valletta be protected by outer fortresses on the land approach. To make the most of this fascinating region of Malta, pre-book a hire car from Luqa Malta Airport. Here you'll drive under or beside the twin arches of Porte des Bombes, one built in the 18th century, another added later, in matching style of course, by the British. On St Anne Street are the British High Commission and the US Embassy.

Vitioriosa Senglea and Cospicua Malta

Just across Grand Harbour from Valletta are 'the three cities', which you can reach by bus from City Gate, by hire car via Marsa or, if one is operating, by dgnajsa (water taxi) from Lascaris Wharf. From the main gate of Vittoriosa, still known as Birgu to the Maltese, the main street carries on down to Vittoriosa Square. Halfway along you'll come to the former Inquisi¬tor's Palace, a gloomy warren now partly turned into a folk museum. Just to the east of the square in Majjistral (or Mis¬tral) Street is the pretty facade of the Auberge d'Angle terre. Below the square, the diminutive church is the Oratory of St Joseph. You can ask for a key at the 'museum' door round the corner though. There’s not much to see inside except for a sword and hat belonging to Jean de la Valette.

The Church of St Lawrence

Towards the waterfront, the Church of St Lawrence was originally the knights' Consensual Church before the move to Valletta. It was rebuilt by Lorenzo Gafa in the late 1600s and is richly decorated inside, with paintings and pink marble columns. Outside, a plaque records the death of Sir Nicholas Upton, who fell de¬fending Malta from the Turks in 1551. Another commemo¬rates those who died in the World War II bombing, when the church's dome was com¬pletely destroyed.

Below the church is a new Freedom Monument, unveiled on 31 March 1979, when the British Navy finally departed: it shows a British sailor shak¬ing hands with a Maltese dock¬worker. The buildings along the waterfront were first used as bakeries by the knights, then by the Royal Navy.

Now they house the Maritime

The site of Fort St Angelo had already been built on in Phoenician times with, it is thought, a temple to Astarte, followed by a Greek temple to Hera and a Roman one to Juno. During the Great Siege, the knights moored their galleys in the moat (now largely filled in) between the fort and the town, when St Angelo was their command post. It was also the Royal Navy's head¬quarters during World War II, and held up well, considering how often it was bombed.

Senglea and Cospicua and car rentals in Malta

Senglea and Cospicua were also heavily blitzed, and have been rebuilt in modem style as residential areas. Benglea, also called l'Isla, was named after the Grand Master who forti¬fied it before the Great Siege, Claude de la Sengle. Make your way to the little garden at Isola Point, where a lookout tower is aptly sculp¬ted with an eye and an ear. Cospicua (also known as Bormla), is ringed by the for¬midable multiple walls of the Cotonera lines, named after the 17thcentury Grand Master Cotoner.