0907-0910, 2605 MALTA - City of Valletta (UNESCO WHS)

0907 Valletta seen from Marsamxett Harbour, with Manoel Island and Sliema

Posted on 18.12.2013, 12.06.2016
Malta's strategic location tempted many throughout history, so a succession of powers (including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Moorish, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St. John, French and the British) ruled the island, but I dare to say that its name remained in our minds linked to the Knights of St. John, also known as the Knights Hospitaller, who completed here in 1523 the pilgrimage made ​​under the pressure of Islam, which pushed them from the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Cyprus (1291), then in the island of Rhodes (1309).

0908 The Grandmaster's Palace in Valleta

Valletta was born when the Order decided to found a new city on the Xiberras peninsula to fortify its position in the island, and the Grandmaster, Jean Parisot de Valette, laid the foundation stone of Our Lady of Victories Church. The official name was Humilissima Civitas Valletta (The Most Humble City of Valletta), but not long after, the ruling houses of Europe gave the city the nickname Superbissima (Most Proud). The Italian engineer Francesco Laparelli designed the city on a rectangular grid, the planning being carried out by Girolamo Cassar.

0909 St John's Co-Cathedral in Valleta

The fortification and the uniform urban plan of Valletta were inspired by architectural principles of the Italian Renaissance in combination with techniques of contemporary city-planning. The streets were designed to be wide and straight, beginning centrally from the City Gate and ending at Fort Saint Elmo overlooking the Mediterranean. The improvements attributed to the military engineers of the 18th century haven't disturbed this harmony. Even if under the British rule has been built massive, and Nazi air raids throughout WWII caused much destruction, Valletta remained one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world.

0910 Caravaggio - The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Manoel Island, flat and shaped roughly like a leaf, is located in the middle of Marsamxett Harbour (Marsamuscetto), being connected to mainland Malta by a bridge. It is named after the Portuguese Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, who built a fort on the island in the 1720s, considered a typical example of 18th century military engineering. On a peninsula across Marsamxett Harbour from Valletta is located town of Sliema, where the British built a number of fortifications in the 19th century. In addition, the 18th century Fort Tigné remained in use as well, and barracks were built on the Tigné peninsula.

2605 Caravaggio -Saint Jerome Writing

The Grandmaster's Palace, which currently houses the House of Representatives of Malta and the office of the President of Malta, is one of the first buildings in Valletta, erected in 1571 around two courtyards. It was further enlarged and embellished by successive Grand Masters, and its present configuration dates back to around the mid-18th century. Its Armoury house one of the finest collections of Medieval and Renaissance weapons in all of Europe, and it also features Gobelins tapestries and frescos by Matteo Perez d'Aleccio (a student of Michelangelo) among other treasures.

2468 MALTA - Knights of Malta

Considered the most important of all the Roman Catholic military orders, both for the extent of its area and for its duration, The Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (Latin: Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), known as Hospitallers of Jerusalem until 1309, Knights of Rhodes from 1309 till 1522, and Knights of Malta since 1530, become in 1834 the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which is even today a sovereign subject of international law, headquartered in Palazzo Malta in Rome.

2093 MALTA - Gozo Island

2093 Gozo: 1. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed
Virgin of Ta' Pinu; 2. The Citadel; 3. Mġarr Harbour; 4. The Azure
Window; 5. The Ġgantija temples; 6. Xlendi Tower.

Gozo, the second largest island of the Maltese archipelago after the island of Malta itself, is more rural compared to its southeastern neighbour, and known for its scenic hills. It is also rich in historic locations such as the Ġgantija temples, which, along with the other Megalithic Temples of Malta, are among the world's oldest free-standing structures.

1963, 1975 MALTA - St. Paul's Cathedral in Mdina

1963 Malta - St. Paul's Cathedral in Mdina

Posted on 16.10.2015, 20.10.2015
Built between 1697 and 1702 in Baroque style on the site where governor Publius was reported to have met Saint Paul following his shipwreck off the Maltese coast, St. Paul's Cathedral dominates with its prominent facade the landscape of Mdina’s narrow streets, which served as the capital of the island since antiquity until the arrival of the Knights Hospitaller, in 1530. It was designed by the architect Lorenzo Gafa to replace the Norman cathedral, destroyed by the 1693 earthquake.

1975 Malta - St. Paul's Cathedral in Mdina: 1. A view of the baroque
architecture over the high altar; 2. The Carrara marble statue of
St. Luke, by Giuseppe Valenti, on the presbitery;
3. St. Paul's Cathedral exterior/

From the old cathedral survived several artifacts and edifices, including paintings and frescoes. The near-square facade is cleanly divided in three bays by the Corinthian order of pilasters. There are two bell towers at the both corners. The plan is a Latin cross with a vaulted nave, two aisles and two small side chapels. The Cathedral has a light octagonal dome, with eight stone scrolls above a high drum leading up to a neat lantern.

1572 MALTA - Women playing Tombla

In Malta, Tombla (open-air Bingo or Housey-Housey) is a very popular game, in particular for women. After Sunday lunch, or in the cool of the evening, village women used to gather in street corners  to play Tombla. The numbers are called in English rather than Maltese; the cards are well worn, having been used hundreds of times; the counters are ussually buttons. The womenfolk perch on ambient benches for their weekly gamble-and-gossip; the stakes are low and so are the prizes. The Tombla is based on the Spanish game of Bingo with one to 90 numbers. For those who doesn't know, Bingo is a game of probability in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers.

1442 MALTA - Popeye Village

Also known as Sweethaven Village, Popeye Village is a group of rustic and ramshackle wooden buildings located at Anchor Bay, in the north-west corner of the island of Malta, two miles from the village of Mellieħa. It was built as a film set for the production of the 1980 live-action musical feature film Popeye, produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions and starring Robin Williams. Today it is open to the public as an open-air museum and family entertainment complex. Some of the houses in Popeye Village have been equipped with various items related to the filming, including props used in the film's production.

0953 MALTA - Marsaxlokk and its Luzzu

Marsaxlokk is a picturesque fishing village located in the south-eastern part of Malta, with a population of 3,277 people. Its name comes from marsa (port) and xlokk, the local name for south east. The word is related to the name for the dry sirocco wind that blows from the Sahara. The Phoenicians landed here and set up trading posts during the 9th century BC, but evidence of habitation of the area are much older. The hill of Tas-Silġ, which overlook the northern arm of Marsaxlokk Bay, contains remains of megalithic temples, but also the remains of its use as a religious site, from the end of the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD, and also of the 4th century AD, when it was adapted to the new religion, Christianity.

0874, 0274 & 0322 MALTA - Megalithic Temples of Malta (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 10.07.2012, 15.09.2012, and 22.11.2013
The Megalithic Temples of Malta are eleven prehistoric monuments, of which seven are UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Ġgantija Temples (on Gozo island - two temples), Ħaġar Qim (in Qrendi), Mnajdra (in Qrendi), Ta' Ħaġrat Temples (in Mġarr), Skorba Temples (in Żebbiegħ) and Tarxien Temples (in Tarxien). Ġgantija temples were listed in 1980, but in 1992 the listing was extend to include the other five megalithic temples. Built during three distinct time periods between 5000 BC and 700 BC, they have been claimed as "the oldest free-standing monuments in the world" (Professor Lord Renfrew), and are considered by archaeologists a result of local innovations in a process of cultural evolution.

 

Ġgantija Temples, located on the small island of Gozo, at the end of the Xagħra plateau, were built during the Neolithic Age (c. 3600-2500 BC), in the typical clover-leaf shape, enclosed within a boundary wall. The southerly one, better preserved, is the larger, highest (6m) and elder, dating back to approximately 3600 BC. The finding of animal bones in the site suggests that was used for animal sacrifice. According to local Gozitan folklore, a giantess built these temples and used them as places of worship. Even the name of the complex, Ġgantija, is derived from the word Ggant, meaning giant.
 

Mnajdra, located on the southern coast of the island of Malta, at about 500m from the other complex, Ħaġar Qim, consists of three conjoined but not connected temples, made of coralline limestone, and the main structure, corbelling with smaller stones, but also post-and-lintel with large slabs. Some books assign Mnajdra to the Ggantija phase, but according to Anthony Bonanno both complexes were built during the Tarxien phase (3000 BC - 2500 BC). Anyway, the fact is that the sites aren't contemporaneous. The cloverleaf plan appears more regular than that of Ħagar Qim, and seems reminiscent of the earlier complex at Ggantija. The south, or lower, temple (of which entrance, oriented due east, you can see it on the postcard) is astronomically aligned with the solar equinoxes, but this may be accidental.