Things to Do in Malta

Sited in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Malta has always had extreme commercial and political significance; a fact reflected in the island’s long and tumultuous history. Valletta’s Grand Harbour has also played a huge part in this history as the biggest and certainly the most dramatic natural harbor in the Med. In use since the Phoenician era and heavily fortified since medieval times, it’s the place where much of Malta’s seafaring tradition and military successes have been played out over the centuries. The Great Siege of 1565 and the relentless bombing during WWII both took their toll here; the former on the occupying Knights of St John and the latter on Allied troops and the people of Valletta ¬– the whole island was awarded the George Cross in 1942 for valor in the face of Nazi attack.

Today, although still guarded by the ramparts of Fort St Elmo, the harbor has lost its military significance and is largely given over to tourism; you’re more likely to see giant cruise liners moored here than warships. Boat tours offer unrivalled panoramas of the Valletta’s honey-and-gold architecture, the mighty bastion walls, the sea forts, and seven different creeks – most notably those leading to Vittorioso, Senglea, and Cospicua just across the Grand Harbour from Valletta and known as the Three Cities.

Marsamxett Harbour sits on the north-west side of Valletta and, along with a series of major creeks – Sliema, Msida and Lazzaretto – provides calm mooring for boats as it is protected by the plug of land at Dragutt Point and by rocky Manoel Island, now connected to the town of Gzira by bridge. Marsamxett is separated from the Grand Harbour by the Valletta peninsula but together the two inlets make up the biggest natural harbor in Europe.

The towns of Sliema, Gzira, Ta’xbiex and Msida sprawl into each other along the northern edge of the harbor, while the southern side is lined with the battlements of Valletta and Floriana. A vast, slowly decaying 18th-century fortress stands on Manoel Island as well as the ruins of an isolation hospital that was used in the 17th century to quarantine sailors suspected of having the plague. Marsamxett Harbour is also home to Malta’s biggest yachting marina, which stretches right up Msida Creek to Ta’xbiex.

Malta is famous for the lavish scale of its many scores of churches (there are 25 in Valletta alone) but Mosta’s Neo-classical parish church of St Mary stands out even among all this grandeur. Its eponymous, self-supporting dome measures 121 ft (37 m) in diameter and is 220 ft (67 m) high – bigger than St Paul’s in London – with every inch of the interior covered in gilt, frescoes and marble flooring. The church was designed by Maltese architect Giorgio Grognet de Vassé in the style of the Pantheon in Rome but built by solely by local parishioners and volunteers between 1833 and 1860.

The interior houses Malta’s biggest, most flamboyant organ, with 2,000 pipes, but the church is better known for a miraculous escape the congregation had in 1942 during WW2. On Sunday, April 9 the church was packed with 300 worshippers when three Luftwaffe bombs hit the dome. Two bounced off but one crashed through into the nave; amazingly it failed to explode, saving scores of lives. The legend of the miracle of Mosta Dome was thus born and a replica of the unexploded bomb can be found in the sacristy.

The first nature park in the country, Birdpark Malta is a hidden gem for visitors. Open to the public for just five years and covering 5,000 square meters, it is home to more than 200 species of birds. A variety of other animals also populate the park, including kangaroos, wallabies, antelopes, deer, meercats, snakes and other reptiles. Visitors can watch daily feedings, participate in interactive sessions with owls, macaws, reptiles and other animals, or join a guided tour of the park to learn more about bird habitats, songs and calls, migration patterns and nests and eggs. And of course, the park’s helpful keepers are always on hand to answer questions. Consider combining a trip to Birdpark Malta with a visit to the National Aquarium of Malta for a full day wildlife experience.

Malta’s oldest and least-known prehistoric site is close to Marsaxlokk on the south coast. Excavations at the massive limestone cave complex at Għar Dalam in the 20th century led to the discovery of fossils of long-extinct mammals and provide firm evidence of human occupation of the island 7,400 years ago in Neolithic times. Bones and fossils of animals extinct before the Ice Age, including giant mice, dwarf elephants and hippos, can be clearly seen in a layer of rock more than 500,000 years old. Above this bedrock is a layer of loose rock formed a mere 18,000 years ago, which contained remains of deer and other mammals, and this is topped by a rock strata evidencing fragments of human skeletons and shards of tools and pots. It is thought that the first human settlers on Malta came across a land bridge from mainland Europe and existed in these caves – in fact there were still people living here in 1911 when excavations started.

The cave itself was hollowed out by water over millions of years and stretches more than 490 ft (150 m) underground; they also contain some spectacular stalagmite and stalactite formations. The first 263 ft (80 m) are open for viewing and there’s also a small museum on site, which relates the geological history of the caves and displays some of the bones, teeth and skeletons found on-site. There’s also a small botanical garden planted with indigenous Maltese shrubs and trees.

Designed by Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar in the mid-16th century and later extensively remodeled under Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca – who also commissioned the original warehouses that now form Valletta Waterfront – the Auberge de Castille has pride of place at Valletta’s highest spot and owns one of the most strikingly ornate Baroque façades in the city. It was built for the powerful Spanish and Portuguese members of the Knights of St John when they were constructing the fortified city of Valletta; it was customary to have separate lodging for each nationality within the order.

Following the enforced departure of the Knights of St John from Malta in 1798, the Auberge became headquarters to occupying French forces and then British troops. Symmetrical and well proportioned, the elegant façade was badly damaged during the bombing raids of WWII but has been beautifully restored; it now houses the offices of the Maltese Prime Minster, Joseph Muscat, and is beautifully floodlit at night.

This walk-through, multi-media exhibition with plenty of sound effects and flashing lights focuses on the epic events of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, in which the Turks were defeated by the Knights of St John. It also looks back on the history of the Knights, from their formation in the 12th century and their original role in tending to the pilgrims en route to the Holy Land to their reinvention as the quasi-military force who repelled the Turkish invaders. The story of Malta’s great victory is told in a series of period dioramas through the words of Francesco Balbi, a Spanish poet who was eyewitness to the breaking of the Great Siege.

The exhibition provides a great introduction to the events that marked so much of Malta’s tumultuous history and there are plenty of gory recreations of battle scenes from the 1565 siege, which kids will particularly appreciate.

Malta’s prettiest fishing village sits around a bay on the south coast of the island and has starred in thousands of postcards and many a film. Marsaxlokk’s (pronounced marsa-schlock) chief attractions are twofold: the buzzing daily market and the fishing boats. The latter comprises a large fleet of luzzus (pronounced ‘lut-sues’) bobbing in the bay. These traditional, cheerily painted and wooden Phoenician-style fishing boats have become symbolic of the island – most of them are red, yellow and sky-blue, with eyes painted on their prows to ward off evil. With fishing the staple livelihood of this photogenic little town, there is small wonder that it is one of the best – and cheapest – places on Malta to eat the very freshest of fish. Chose from any of the outdoors restaurants for a fine seafood feast.

Marsaxlokk’s fresh produce market runs daily and sprawls along the quayside under brightly striped awnings; get there at 8am to avoid the crowds an admire the piles of seasonal fruit, vegetables and freshly caught fish. Proceedings reach a crescendo on Sundays, when visitors pour in from all over the island to snap up anything from exquisite locally hand-made lace, linen tablecloths and delicate filigree jewelry to gourmet relishes and Maltese honey – but you’ll have to delve among piles of tatty souvenirs and cheap household goods. Be prepared to barter but expect handcrafted lace to be expensive; if it is not, then it simply is not handmade.