The coastal towers you can walk to for nothing
Three sets of towers ring the coast, built between 1610 and 1659. Most are locked, all of them are free to reach,…
13 Jul 20262 minRead The coastal towers you can walk to for nothing
Heritage sites
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Why the temples sit under tents
The stone at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra was flaking away. The canopies went up in 2008 to stop it, and they were…
6 Jul 20262 minRead Why the temples sit under tents -
The Victoria Lines run right across the island
Twelve kilometres of Victorian wall along the Great Fault, from Fomm ir-Riħ to Madliena. Never fought over, still standing, and walkable in…
26 Jun 20262 minRead The Victoria Lines run right across the island -
Tarxien sits at the end of an ordinary street
Five thousand years old, four linked temples, and houses on three sides. The village grew around it after 1913.
22 Jun 20262 minRead Tarxien sits at the end of an ordinary street -
The Cittadella is the whole of Gozo in one view
A walled town on a hill, a twenty minute circuit of the ramparts, and the reason Gozitans slept inside the walls for…
20 Jun 20262 minRead The Cittadella is the whole of Gozo in one view -
Fort St Angelo held out when St Elmo fell
The Order’s headquarters through the Great Siege, then a British naval base for over a century, and now open to walk round.
13 Jun 20262 minRead Fort St Angelo held out when St Elmo fell -
The Maltese balcony, and where it came from
The closed wooden balcony is on streets across both islands. Where it came from is still argued over.
12 Jun 20262 minRead The Maltese balcony, and where it came from -
One Grand Master paid for thirteen towers in two years
Martin de Redin funded a chain of watchtowers close enough to signal each other. Eight of the thirteen are still standing.
8 Jun 20262 minRead One Grand Master paid for thirteen towers in two years -
The Three Cities are older than Valletta
Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua sit opposite Valletta and predate it. The ferry across takes about five minutes.
18 May 20262 minRead The Three Cities are older than Valletta -
The salt pans on the Gozo coast still work
Families cut salt out of the rock between Qbajjar and Xwejni every summer, the same way it has been done for centuries.
27 Apr 20262 minRead The salt pans on the Gozo coast still work -
The eye painted on a luzzu, and what it is for
Every Maltese fishing boat carries an eye on the bow. The habit is thought to go back to Phoenician boats.
17 Apr 20262 minRead The eye painted on a luzzu, and what it is for -
The bomb that fell through the dome at Mosta
It came through the roof during a service in April 1942, with three hundred people inside, and it did not explode.
24 Mar 20262 minRead The bomb that fell through the dome at Mosta