Historic Cities · Malta
Valletta through the ages
Valletta, also known as Città Umilissima, is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta's capital city, it is a commercial centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life.
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Valletta in 1600
Knights' Valletta
Valletta is the new fortified capital raised by the Order of St John after the Great Siege; in 1600 the grid of streets, auberges and the Grand Harbour defences are still young. The walk follows the peninsula from the harbour approach up into the city's regimented streets, passing bastions, cavaliers, auberges, the conventual church's plain exterior and the palace, and ends on a high bastion overlooking the Order's galleys below.
A compact bastioned peninsular city cut into pale honey-coloured limestone, Valletta in 1600 shows a tight orthogonal grid of straight streets running down to two harbours. Low- to mid-rise stone houses and the ashlar façades of auberges and the palace punctuate a clear skyline of bastion walls, flat roofs and raised cavaliers. The sea rims the city with oared galleys and small craft; sunlight is bright, wind off the harbour sharp, dust and lime-smell join horse and tarred-rope tang.
The walk — 24 streets, squares and views
Grand Harbour Approach → View to Fort St. Angelo → Fort St. Elmo → Valletta Marina → Sacra Infermeria → The Manderaggio → Saluting Battery → Porta Reale (Main Gate) → St Michael's Bastion → St. John's Cavalier → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Galley Master's Shed · Great Surgical Ward · Porta Reale Guardroom · St John's Casemates · Merchant Exchange Chamber · Conventual Church Nave · Grandmaster's Armoury · Hall of St Michael · Castile Refectory · Provence Refectory · Italian Refectory · France Refectory
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Hospitaller Malta.
Valletta in 1910
Imperial Valletta
Valletta in 1910 is a compact British imperial port where the Mediterranean Fleet keeps grey battleships in the Grand Harbour and the Knights’ baroque palaces serve as offices and messes. The walk moves from the harbour approach up along the bastioned quays and Strada Reale, past the Royal Opera House colonnade and the Barrakka lifts, into the city’s limestone streets and gardens overlooking blue water.
A compact Baroque city of honey‑coloured limestone rising from clear blue harbours; flat roofs, carved balconies and colonnaded façades catch a hard, southern light. Massive seventeenth‑century bastions descend to quays where dghajsa ferries thread between moored grey battleships, customs sheds and slipways. Strada Reale cuts a straight, sunlit spine of shopfronts, officers’ cafés and the Royal Opera House colonnade; gardens on the bastions punctuate the stone with clipped greenery and bronze guns.
The walk — 20 streets, squares and views
Grand Harbour Approach → Fort Saint Elmo → Lower Barrakka Gardens → Barrakka Lift Base → Lascaris Wharf → Porta Reale (City Gate) → Strada Reale Entrance → Royal Opera House Colonnade → Strada Reale Café → Auberge de Castille → …
Step inside — 13 interiors
Quay Customs Office · Lift Ticket Hall · Victualling Office · Opera House Auditorium · Strada Reale Officers' Café · Admiralty Mess Hall · Tapestry Chamber · Main Guard Guardroom · Cathedral Nave and High Altar · Army Officers' Mess Room · Dockyard Riveting Workshop · Lascaris Casemate Magazine · Saluting Battery Magazine
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Crown Colony of Malta.
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