O HI F S M T C A OR IT L Y I E TA S ’S
VALLETTA Before the Great Siege of 1565, the Sciberras Peninsula was uninhabited and unfortified, except for Fort St Elmo, which stands at its furthest point. Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette commissioned the ambitious building of Valletta, ‘a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen’, and Pope Pius IV sent his foremost engineer, Francesco Laparelli, to build the city. Malta’s capital is a fine example of modern city planning, and was the first city to be designed on a grid system. Laparelli’s assistant, Maltese architect Gerolamo Cassar, contributed heavily to the design of the spectacular baroque buildings that still stand today. Cassar designed the magnificent St. John’s Co-Cathedral, built between 1573 and 1578, which was later adorned in gold-leaf by artist Matti Preti and home to the only signed Caravaggio painting in the world.
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THE THREE CITIES The Three Cities is a collective name for three fortified medieval cities, Vittorosia, Senglea and Conspicua, which were the first home to the Knights of St. John in the 16th century. Vittorosia lies in the shadow of Fort St Angelo, the stronghold which defended the Grand Harbour in the days of the Order. The crucial role it played during the Great Seige 1565 was formally recognised when the name, which means ‘victorious’, was bestowed on the town, replacing its previous name Birgu. MDINA Malta’s old capital is one of the world’s finest examples of a medieval walled city still inhabited. Its history is as old as that of the island itself and can be traced back more than 4,000 years. Mdina was a fortified settlement, even during the Bronze Age. When the Knights arrived in the 16th century,
it was the refuge of Maltese nobility and played an important role during the Great Seige. Tradition holds that the Apostle St. Paul resided in the city ‘s suburb Rabat, after his historical shipwreck on the Maltese Islands in 60 AD. VICTORIA, GOZO Gozo’s capital Rabat was renamed in honour of Britain’s Queen Victoria in her Golden Jubilee year, 1887. The city is the suburb of the medieval walled Citadel and has been fortified since the Bronze Age. The enormous defensive stone walls, built by the Knights to protect the villagers, of the fortification rise above the small town. In 1551, the entire population of Gozo was captured to work as slaves by the Ottoman Empire. Visit www.maltauk.com for more information on the history of the islands’ cities.
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