Founded in 1566 by the Knights of St John and named after the Grand Master who had just survived a four-month Ottoman siege (1566)
Jean Parisot de Valette; the Great Siege of Malta was in 1565
Geography · Cities
Valletta
foundation stone laid 28 March 1566
Malta — on a peninsula between the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour
A fortified grid-planned city built on a rocky peninsula by the Knights of St John immediately after they beat off the Ottoman siege of 1565, and named after the Grand Master who led the defence. Barely a square kilometre in area and home to only about five thousand people, it is the least populous capital in the European Union, and the whole city is a World Heritage Site.
How to spot them
- ▸A fortified 16th-century grid city on a peninsula between two harbours, capital of an island state
- ▸Quiz clue: 'the Knights of St John', 'the Great Siege of 1565', 'Grand Harbour', 'Caravaggio'
- ▸Named after a Grand Master; called 'a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen'
- ▸The EU's smallest and least populous capital
Key facts
Its grid plan was drawn by Francesco Laparelli, a military engineer sent by Pope Pius V, and finished by his Maltese assistant (1566)
Girolamo Cassar completed the work and designed many of its buildings
With around five thousand residents in under a square kilometre, it is the least populous capital in the European Union
About 0.61 square kilometres
Its co-cathedral holds the only painting Caravaggio ever signed, and the tombs of the knights under a marble floor
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, 1608, in St John's Co-Cathedral
A saluting battery of cannon still fires over the deep inlet that sheltered the Mediterranean Fleet
The Upper Barrakka Gardens above the Grand Harbour
Its island was awarded the George Cross in 1942 for enduring bombardment, and the medal appears on the national flag (1942)
Awarded by George VI to the whole island of Malta
It shared the title of European Capital of Culture in 2018 with Leeuwarden (2018)
Renzo Piano's new City Gate and parliament building opened shortly before
Quick-fire facts
- •Capital of Malta; population of the city proper is roughly 5,000
- •Two harbours flank it: the Grand Harbour to the south-east and Marsamxett to the north-west
- •Its nickname among the knights was Superbissima, 'most proud'
- •The whole City of Valletta was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980
- •The Grand Master's Palace now houses the office of the President of Malta
- •Fort St Elmo, at the tip of the peninsula, held out for a month in the 1565 siege and now houses the National War Museum
- •The Manoel Theatre, opened in 1732, is among the oldest working theatres in Europe
- •Renzo Piano designed the new City Gate, parliament building and open-air theatre in the ruins of the Royal Opera House, completed in 2015
- •It is the southernmost capital city in Europe
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — City of Valletta
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Valletta