by James Ruggia
Last updated: 12:09 PM ET, Thu January 29, 2015
PHOTO: Art and stout knights have thrived on the Maltese islands as they do here in the President's Palace Hallway. (Photo by Clive Vella)
In just two weeks, when the official flag of Carnival is hoisted over Valletta's Pjazza Teatru Rjal, the islands of Malta will leap into their annual Carnival celebrations. Though Carnival and other festivals make for particularly colorful times to visit the Maltese islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, there are plenty of year round attractions that make the destination worth a visit at any time.
Malta is a virtual jewelry box for the traveler interested in history. Thanks to its location in the dead center of the Mediterranean it has been heir to waves and waves of various cultures throughout history and prehistory.
It's this location in the center of so many historic currents that accounts for the country's high number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. With 11 of them, Malta features the highest density of UNESCO Sites of any country in the world. Valletta, the country's gateway and capital, should get increasing attention as we head towards 2018, when it will be a European Capital of Culture. Valletta is a beautiful Renaissance city, built by the Knights of St John. These were Hospitaller Knights, who were sworn to defend the passage of pilgrims from bandits and others who were hostile to Christian designs on Jerusalem.
The Crusades were long over when Valletta, as we know it, was built in the 16th century. By then the struggle was between regional superpowers, the Ottoman Empire centered in Istanbul and the Christian West primarily centered in Rome. The memory of the knights is enshrined in the Co-Cathedral of St. John, a beautiful Baroque structure that happens to house one of the masterworks of European painting Caravaggio's Beheading of St. John.
The church features many painted scenes from the life of St. John as well as a marvelously eerie floor in which the vaults of the interred knights are covered in black stone that is inlaid with white stone with images of skeletons.
PHOTO: Valletta's Co-Cathedral of St. John is the very heart of Maltese history. (Photo by Paolo Meitre Liberatini)
Though it was built in the 16th century, the Palace of the Grandmasters has never relinquished power in the country as it later served as the British Governor's palace and is now home to Malta's House of Representatives and the office of the country's president.
A new Parliament building is being erected by the great Renzo Piano. It will be very interesting to see how he proceeds with his building in a city that is so historically pristine in its Baroque and Renaissance architecture. Inside the Council Chamber, a rare collection of Gobelin tapestries depicts hunting scenes from different continents. In the Armoury Room, the arms collection preserves the weapons that were used in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, which was the greatest moment in the long history of the Knights of St. John.
The Inquisitor's Palace was originally opened for the Grand Inquisitor in 1574. Palaces for powerful members of the church who were directing the Inquisition were built all over Europe, but most of them were destroyed for being the brutal and idiotic interpretations of Christian justice that they were. Somehow the Inquisitors Palace in Malta survived and to this day it shows visitors how well a society can care for its tyrants no matter how murderous.
Located in the center of Malta is the ancient walled city of Mdina, a.k.a. the Silent City. Mdina can trace its roots back more than 4,000 years. After crossing the bridge over Mdina's medieval moat you enter a world without automobiles, where lamp lit streets and a fine tranquility.
The quiet that prevails throughout this beautiful city hasn't been known in an urban landscape since the invention of the combustion engine. During its medieval era it was a home to the island's nobility, some who were descended from visiting conquerors: Norman, Sicilian and Spanish. Outside the city you can explore St. Paul's Catacombs, a labyrinth of underground Roman cemeteries that were last used in the 4th century.
With a history that dates back to the 5th century BCE, the monuments detailed above are just the latest to be installed by history. Malta is also dotted with numerous prehistoric sites from both the Stone and Bronze Ages. And in truth, human history is only part of the story. When they opened up the cave known as Ghar Dalam they found a Noah's Ark of animal remains that included such non-European members as dwarf elephants and a lost species of hippopotamus.
In a previous article I described the prehistoric remains on Malta. So I'll go more lightly here. Malta's oldest human remain is actually out on Gozo. The Xaghra Stone Circle is about 6,100 years old. Ggantija, also on Gozo are two towering prehistoric temples. The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is a Neolithic burial chamber carved from sandstone with Stone Age tools beginning about 5,600 years ago. Mnadjra overlooks the islet of Fifla and during the Equinox (March 20 and Sept. 22) the sun illuminates the temple.
Altogether there are 11 prehistoric sites in Malta. The above is only a partial listing of all of the destination's many points of interest. As the density of Malta's UNESCO registry demonstrates, this is a destination that is packed with amazing attractions that are easily accessed because of the country's size.
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