Palace State Rooms (Grandmasters Palace, Palace Square, Valletta) — The State Rooms are the show piece of the Presidential Palace sited at the heart of Malta’s World Heritage capital city of Valletta. The Palace itself was one of the first buildings in the new city of Valletta founded by Grand Master Jean de Valette in […]
Palace Armoury (Grandmasters Palace, Palace Square, Valletta) — The Palace Armoury is one of the world’s largest collections of arms and armor that is still housed in its original building. The Knights of St John were a unique brotherhood of resolute warrior monks. From Malta, their island stronghold, these combatant aristocrats from the noblest houses […]
National Museum of Fine Arts (South Street, Valletta) — The palace (which served as a residence to successive knights of the Order of St John) was officially inaugurated as the National Museum of Fine Arts in 1974. It has since been Malta’s most important museum for the arts. Highlights from the collection on display include […]
National Museum of Archaeology (Auberge de Provence, Republic Street, Valetta) — s housed in the Auberge de Provence, in Republic Street, Valletta. The building, an example of fine Baroque architecture, was built in 1571 and followed a plan by local architect Ġilormu Cassar. The Auberge de Provence was house to the Knights of the Order […]
Malta Maritime Museum (Ex-Naval Bakery, Vittoriosa Waterfront, Vittoriosa, Valetta) — housed within the Old Naval bakery, the Malta Maritime Museum charts Malta’s maritime history and lore within a Mediterranean context. It also illustrates the global nature of seafaring and its impact on Malta’s society. The museum houses numerous artifacts highlighting the different epochs of Malta’s […]
Inquisitor’s Palace (Main Gate Street, Vittoriosa, Valletta) – located across the Grand Harbour from Valletta, this is one of the very few surviving palaces of its kind which, in the early modern period could be found all over Europe and South America. Many of these palaces simply succumbed to the ravages of time or were […]
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum (Burial Street, Paola, Valletta) – discovered in the early 1900s, this archeological site is a complex made up of interconnecting rock-cut chambers set on three distinct levels. Earliest remains at the site date back to about 4000BC, and the complex was used over a span of many centuries, up to c. 2500 […]
Fort St. Elmo (St. Elmo’s Place, Valletta) – originally built as a watch tower in 1488 during the Aragonese rule of Malta, the Order of Saint John (Knights of Malta) built it into a full-fledged fort in the mid-16th century to prevent invasions by the Ottomans (who previously raided the island in 1551). In 1565, […]
Fort Rinella (St. Rocco Road, Kalkara) – this fort, which is across the bay from Valletta, was built by the British in 1878 to defend the UK’s commercial and military activities in the Mediterranean, and to act as a back-up to that country’s maritime traffic that was going through the Suez Canal in Egypt. This […]
Gozo Museum of Archaeology (Triq Bieb I-Imdina, The Citadel, Victoria, Gozo) – located on the neighboring Maltan island of Gozo, Gozo Museum of Archaeology illustrates the cultural history of Gozo from prehistoric times to the early modern period. It relies on themes like burial, religion, art, food and daily life, making use of material from […]