Valletta Walking Tour

Archaeology Museum

Situated at the beginning of the capital’s bustling Republic Street, this is probably a good place to start. Like much else in Valletta, the building is worth as much attention as the collection itself. The museum is housed in the Auberge de Provence, one of the first and most important buildings to erected in the capital in the late sixteenth century. An upstairs salon gives an idea of the opulence and magnificence of this building. Here you can also see artifacts from Malta’s prehistoric periods from 5,200 BC to 2,500 BC, including the famous Sleeping Lady, discovered at Malta’s hypogeum, which seems to represent sleep and death.

St John’s co-Cathedral

No tour around Valletta is complete without a visit to St John’s co-Cathedral, where an austere exterior conceals the magnificence and richness of the interior. Commissioned in 1572 by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as the conventual church of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John, and designed by the celebrated Maltese military architect Gerolamo Cassar, St John’s Co-Cathedral stands as a unique monument of international importance. Here you can admire Caravaggio’s Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and St Jerome writing – a legacy of the artist’s brief stay in Malta in 1607-08 – and walk over the marble tombs of some of the most illustrious Knights of the Order.

Grandmaster’s Palace

Nowadays used as the seat of parliament and the President’s Office, the Grandmaster’s Palace is a gently atmospheric and beautiful building constructed by the Knights as the Grand Master’s residence as well as for public functions. The charming courtyard with its central fountain is nowadays used for jazz concerts in summer. A walk up the beautiful old stairs leads you to an impressive passageway lined with lanterns, painted ceilings and the suits of armour of Knights, as if guarding the door behind which Malta’s parliament still meets. Here also you can admire the magnificent tapestry chamber, whose walls are covered with a set of tapestries that were a gift by Grandmaster Perellos shortly after his election as grandmaster in 1697. The complete set was a highly valuable replica of a similar set in Versailles, showing scenes of South American flora and fauna. Or you can lose yourself in the richness of the frescos by the Rome-trained artist Matteo Perez d’Aleccio, which show the main events of the Siege of Malta by the Turkish army between May and September of 1565. The Palace State Rooms are closed on Thursdays.

Armoury

Examine the splendid gilded parade armour of Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt or the battle trophies of the Great Siege. Housed in the former stables of the magnificent Magisterial Palace of the Order of St John in Valletta, the Armoury ranks among the world’s best arms collections and covers three centuries of armour and arms development.

Manoel Theatre

The second oldest theatre in Europe, the Manoel Theatre was first opened to the public in 1732 and is still in use today, with a season running from October to late May. A few of the performances are in Maltese, but several high-calibre concerts are also held on a regular basis. In the past few years a team of restorers has been returning the theatre’s interior to its former splendour. From the sumptuous interior to the atmospheric courtyard, often used for literary gatherings; from the ushers to the old-fashioned staircase, an evening at the Manoel makes for a great night out.

St James Cavalier Centre of Creativity

With its geometrical shapes and bright green, purple, and pink shades, St James Cavalier presents an eclectic mixture of old and new. Situated at the entrance to Valletta – opposite the Prime Minister’s office at the Auberge de Castille – St James Cavalier was renovated and re-opened to the public as a centre for creativity in 2000. Originally built in the sixteenth century and commissioned by the Order of the Knights of St John, it was one of two cavaliers which served as raised gun platforms for the city’s military defence against land attacks. During nineteenth-century British rule, it housed two cisterns for the storage and supply of water for the capital city, Valletta; it later also served as a food store for the Navy based in Malta, and was commonly known as the NAAFI. Shortly after the islands gained independence, it also served as the very first Malta Government Printing Press. Nowadays the centre offers a varied programme consisting of arthouse film screenings, theatre and dance performances, music concerts, and visual art exhibitions among other initiatives. Opposite are the Upper Barrakka gardens, where you can enjoy one of Malta’s best views.

National library

Standing elegant and impassive as people hurry past it or enjoy the sunshine in the busy square outside, the National Library – or Bibliotheca – has been guarding its priceless and fragile store of knowledge for over two centuries. Here you can find treasures such as a 1566 edition of M. Michel Nostradamus’ Les Propheties and a rare edition of the Gioco d’arme dei sovrani e degli stati d’Europa, a book of 52 playing cards on the various countries in Europe – including Malta – which were used to test novices who wanted to become knights. Entering the library feels like walking straight into another age. The walls of a large reading room are surrounded with shelves filled with ancient and dusty tomes, their spines crumbling with age, their pages full of words from the past. The Bibliotheca is solely a research and reference library, so these books – some 650,000 volumes – never leave the premises.

MITP

A little-known theatre tucked away at the fringes of the capital, where the city’s character starts transmuting into quirky possibilities, this black box style theatre offers a great space for off-the-mainstream or underground performances. Run by the Koperattiva Kulturali Universitarja, the theatre forms part of the Old University building and as such tends to be used as a laboratory for students but also by various small experimental theatre groups who appreciate its flexibility and unique sense of freedom.

The Pub

Hidden away in those streets which do not often see the rush of shoppers, you may chance to come across an old style English village pub. The Pub is famous for being the place where actor Oliver Reed – staying on the island for the filming of Gladiator – drank his last but it is also just a great place for a drink in the capital, perhaps sitting on a bench beneath the photos of Ollie. With its red brick façade, panelled window and wooden bar, The Pub seems straight out of an English picture book but nevertheless sits comfortably in baroque Valletta, more usually associated with wines bars and music rather than cosy English pubs.

Valletta underground

And the city’s secrets do not end above ground: legends and myths on the existence of an underground city – a city beneath the city, as it were – abound, with people even speculating that one could pass through the underground streets on horses. Although Valletta’s underground passageways have never been fully explored, this now appears unlikely; what there is, instead, is an intricate system of wells and reservoirs, sewers and reservoirs, some of which are as high as four storeys and others only narrow enough to let a person through. None of these are open to the public and no complete map of subterranean Valletta currently exists, but visitors might derive some enjoyment from the knowledge that not all of Valletta’s underground passageways – and their secrets – have seen the light of day yet.

This information is intended for guidance only; always check opening days and hours before visiting particular sites.