Malta
Valetta harbor is one of the great natural harbors of the world. Founded in 1566, its magnificent network of fortifications is a perfect example of Renaissance architecture. The 27 square kilometers of walled city has been described as “a city built for gentlemen by gentlemen”. Valetta is the modern capital of Malta, an island community strategically placed in the middle of the Mediterranean, with Africa to the south and the toe of Italy to the north, marking the divide between the eastern and western Mediterranean. Malta, needless to say, has attracted settlers over the centuries. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, the Knights of St John, and latterly, the British, have all left their mark. The Maltese, independent since 1964, drive on the left, speak a Semitic language and are devout Catholics.
Their emblem, the Maltese Cross derives from the Knights of St John, the Knights Hospitaller, founded to care for the sick and wounded on pilgrimage to the Holy Places. Driven out of the Levant, they fell back on Rhodes before finding refuge in Malta for the token rent of a Maltese falcon, paid annually to the Emperor Charles V. Their cathedral church in Valetta houses numerous artistic treasures, including Caravaggio’s The beheading of St John the Baptist (1608). The heroic resistance of the Maltese islanders to German and Italian aerial bombardment during the Second World War resulted in the unique award of the George Cross to a community rather than an individual. It is this George Cross that has been incorporated into the Maltese flag since independence in 1964.
Mystery surrounds the earliest inhabitants. A prolonged Stone Age culture produced the stone built temples that we visited this morning on the neighboring island of Gozo and this afternoon on the main island. Both the purposes of the monuments and the history of their builders elude us. We are left to ponder both the spiritual needs of our forefathers and their extraordinary capacity to execute architectural complexity.
Valetta harbor is one of the great natural harbors of the world. Founded in 1566, its magnificent network of fortifications is a perfect example of Renaissance architecture. The 27 square kilometers of walled city has been described as “a city built for gentlemen by gentlemen”. Valetta is the modern capital of Malta, an island community strategically placed in the middle of the Mediterranean, with Africa to the south and the toe of Italy to the north, marking the divide between the eastern and western Mediterranean. Malta, needless to say, has attracted settlers over the centuries. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, the Knights of St John, and latterly, the British, have all left their mark. The Maltese, independent since 1964, drive on the left, speak a Semitic language and are devout Catholics.
Their emblem, the Maltese Cross derives from the Knights of St John, the Knights Hospitaller, founded to care for the sick and wounded on pilgrimage to the Holy Places. Driven out of the Levant, they fell back on Rhodes before finding refuge in Malta for the token rent of a Maltese falcon, paid annually to the Emperor Charles V. Their cathedral church in Valetta houses numerous artistic treasures, including Caravaggio’s The beheading of St John the Baptist (1608). The heroic resistance of the Maltese islanders to German and Italian aerial bombardment during the Second World War resulted in the unique award of the George Cross to a community rather than an individual. It is this George Cross that has been incorporated into the Maltese flag since independence in 1964.
Mystery surrounds the earliest inhabitants. A prolonged Stone Age culture produced the stone built temples that we visited this morning on the neighboring island of Gozo and this afternoon on the main island. Both the purposes of the monuments and the history of their builders elude us. We are left to ponder both the spiritual needs of our forefathers and their extraordinary capacity to execute architectural complexity.
