“Valletta equals in its noble architecture, if it does not excel, any capital in Europe. The city is one of the most beautiful, for its architecture and the splendour of its streets that I know: something between Venice and Cadiz.” – Benjamin Disraeli
The city of Valletta was built by the Knights of St John who were granted the island in 1530, seven years after being expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman Turks. Trouble with Turks however continued to follow the Knights and in 1565 the Ottomans laid siege to their new home on Malta with the intention of establishing a base from where they could conveniently advance into Europe. But as in Rhodes and at Bodrum the Knights proved a tough nut to crack and the Great Siege of Malta which lasted from May until September ended with the defeat and retreat of the Turkish army.
The rest of Europe was so grateful for this stoic resistance that it began to provide funding for the Grand Master of the Order, Jean Parisot de Valette, to plan and construct a new fortified city that was to be called Valletta in his memory.
We walked through the city main gate which isn’t a gate anymore, just a modern interpretation of what a gate might have looked like. Not at all like a gate in my estimation. And then down Republic Street which undulates like a giant roller coaster and is flanked on either side by expensive shops and boutiques. This is probably on account of the fact that the ugly cruise ships stop here now and all of the passengers are regularly emptied onto the quay side to go shopping and marauding in the main streets.
We passed the Cathedral and the Palace of the Knights and continued on our way to the furthest point, St Elmo’s Fort, which was closed for restoration. In 2008 the World Monuments Fund placed the fort on its Watch List of the one hundred Most Endangered Sites in the world because of its significant deterioration due to factors such as lack of maintenance and security, natural ageing, and the still unrepaired damage from the bombing in the Second-World-War. If Valletta is to be a European Capital of Culture then it has to be cleaned up.
The fact that Fort St Elmo was closed for restoration wasn’t really a problem because the whole of Valletta is in fact one huge fort with Medieval fortifications defending it on all sides so we set off to walk along the side of the Grand Harbour with views across to the marinas and docks on the opposite side.
Walking along the edge of the water it was easy to appreciate just how strategically important this place was to a strong naval power like the British and why the Germans in World War Two would have liked to possess it. Today the harbour is full of fishing boats, yachts and tourist vessels but it is easy to imagine it full of battleships and naval dockyards.
It was a pleasant walk along the water side but eventually we decided to make our way back into the city centre. On a side street we came across a bar which seemed to be cut into the rocks but it had some tables outside and a large beer was only €1.50 and there was some Spanish style tapas so we sat there for a while and enjoyed the sunshine.
Eventually we drained our glasses and walked into the city through the Victoria Gate. That would be Queen Victoria I imagine.
We were getting dangerously close to shops now and Kim stopped now and then to look at shoes and sparkly things but the danger passed and soon we were back on Republic Street.
It was time to visit a church and although Kim wasn’t too keen, on account of the fact that the exterior was dull and uninteresting we bought tickets to visit the Cathedral of St John and even Kim was pleased that we did because inside was a complete contrast with an opulent Baroque interior and a floor of headstones each commemorating one of the Knights of St John.
There was some wonderful things in the Cathedral, art, sculptures, tapestries and finally a room with two magnificent paintings by the artist Caravaggio including the famous beheading of St John the Baptist.
Very good but a bit gruesome…
In a Museum there was an explanation that the Cathedral once possessed the Saint’s right hand, which is of course a very important relic because this was the hand with which he baptised Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.
Unfortunately at some point over the last two thousand years it went missing. No one can be really sure of course but today it is claimed to be in the Serbian Orthodox monastery in Cetinje* in Montenegro, the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and also in a remote monastery somewhere in Romania.
Several different locations also claim to possess the severed head of John the Baptist. Among them are Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, San Silvestro in Capite in Rome and the Residenz Museum in Munich (a bit odd, if you ask me). Other JTB heads were once said to be held by the Knights Templar at Amiens in France, at Antioch in Turkey and, most unlikely of all, the parish church at Tenterden in Kent, in England where it remained until it was disposed of during the English Reformation as being superfluously Catholic.
Anyway, there are thousands of Churches and Mosques dedicated to St John the Baptist. I used to go to this one every Sunday in the village of Hillmorton in Warwickshire where I grew up.
When it was over we left the Cathedral and walked now to the other side of the city to Marsamxett harbour to the north where we watched the ferries travelling forward and back to the holiday town of Sliema on the other side and walked a while along the water front and admired the multi coloured box window balconies of the high rise apartment buildings.
I like Valletta, it is a vibrant city, an eclectic mix of Naples, Palermo, Porto, Salamanca and Marseilles and only spoilt by the fact that it has become a cruise ship destination which means more jewellers, boutiques and pricey restaurants. I really do not like those awful cruise ships!
It was late afternoon now so it seemed about the right time to make our way back to the scrum at the bus terminal. There was one due in ten minutes and only a few people waiting at the stop but by the time the bus arrived this had swollen to several thousand. We were getting used to this by now and we pushed our way on and thankfully found a seat for the sixty minute journey back to Mellieha.
* I have driven through Cetinje in Montenegro and have to say that it seems a distinctly unlikely place to find the hand of John The Baptist.
There’s a joke somewhere in there about lending a hand, but I can’t quite focus on it because my head is not on it.
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Maybe you were thinking about the hand of St Francis Xavier, recently loaned by a church in Rome to Canada for a nationwide tour ?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-arm-relic-saint-francis-xavier-1.4510766
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How did I not know about this???
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I like to keep track of the Saints and their bits!
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He got about a bit, that JTB! Valletta looks lovely, definitely worth a visit.
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Absolutely Anabel, a wonderful city, 2018 European Capital of Culture!
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I remember thinking it couldn’t have been much fun to live in Malta during the Second World War, but then I guess there weren’t many pleasant places in Europe during those years.
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Anywhere that was bombed or shelled must have been rather miserable!
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I love Valetta and the church is amazing once inside. My favourite place was the Museum of Archaeology. It rained the day we were there so the museum was a perfect place to spend a couple of hours. https://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/the-malta-museum-of-archaeology/
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Unlucky to get rain in Valletta but a visit to a museum is good compensation!
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I have a friend, she’s Polish and she has an aunt who has been made a saint by a pope.
This iin the 21st century?
Thank god I’m an atheist.
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Pope Francis has canonized 885 Saints since 2013.
It is estimated that there are over 10,000 Saints. Officially, the Catholic Church teaches that all people in heaven are saints, but some are officially “canonized,” or recognized as having lived lives of heroic Christian virtue and are worthy of imitation.
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Well I’m glad that someones keeping track, and that the pope can’t have all those dead people waiting for the accolade for ever,
I suppose his boss Mr God is happy to get this business out of the way so that he can get on with more important things, like blowing up the universe and making more big bangs
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Surely one day the Catholic Church will run out of Saints and Holy Relics!
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NOPE 👿
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Valetta sounds as if it’s a city that can be done in a day. Do you think it’s been cleaned up because of the cruise ships, Andrew? I agree that they can be a nuisance, but I guess they also bring in a lot of trade. Plus, you always seem to be able to find a reasonable place to eat. That place craved into the rocks sounds amazing.
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Probably more to do with preparation for being 2018 European Capital of Culture Hugh.
Kim does eating place selections, I cannot compete with her.
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I remember this from way back although I didn’t comment. It was the lady with the basket for the bread that I remember mostly and Lordberiofbow and his castigation of the Pope.
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Nice to see him pop up now and again.
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It’s nice to see LordBearOfBow still on the page.
“the still unrepaired damage from the bombing in the Second-World-War” in Valletta isn’t too impressive after 70 odd years, but when we went on school trips to London in the mid Sixties, the capital was still full of derelict building plots, full of dust and weeds.
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Quite so, my grandparents lived in London, I was always fascinated by the prefab houses. NCP made their start in post war London by buying up derelict land on the cheap.
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Your posts are always so well-researched and full of interest, but in my shallow way, I’m going to disclose that one of my minor ambitions in life is to shop in the manner described in your introduction – via a basket on a piece of rope.
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An excellent way to shop and you can do it in pyjamas!
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There speaks Grimsby man 😉
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very informative. Took me back to damascus where I have lived for a while.
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Thanks for stopping by.
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Intrigued by the thought of Republic St as a roller coaster, Andrew. Valetta is somewhere I always fancied…apart from those darn cruise ships!
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I agree about the cruise ships but happily Valletta is big enough to cope with them.
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That bus terminal scrum looks more orderly than our underground system
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Kim likes a disorderly queue, brings out her fighting spirit.
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Yes, Valletta is a favourite when it comes to cities we visited before. I never thought that cathedral would be so shiny inside (from the outside it looked pretty dull). Oh, those busses – we traveled on the old and new ones … and on our second visit to Malta, decided to hire a car 😉.
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The old buses are sadly missed. Brave to hire a car in Malta!
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Hmm, we also realised afterwards we were quite brave …
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Valletta is a wonderful city, so many amazing windows! Sadly on my second visit the Grandmaster’s Palace was closed. And for some reason we didn’t go into the Cathedral of St John. Definitely need another holiday in Malta.
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Always worth a return visit.
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Looks like a good place to visit, Andrew. As for the painting of St. John the baptist getting his head cut off, I once walked down a long hallway in the Prado, that was filled with photos of his chopped off head. Gory indeed! –Curt
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