Valletta: Five quirky facts

When the foundation stone of Valletta was laid in 1566, quirkiness was the last thing on people’s minds. Just months before, the Knights of the Order of St. John, who were the rulers of Malta, had defeated the army of the Ottoman Empire after a bloody 3-month siege. In the aftermath, Grand Master Jean de Vallette and his Council concluded that a fortified city needed to be built on the peninsula at the mouth of the harbour where their ships and galleons were berthed. And so, Valletta was born and, with time, it gained its own particular character and quirks that are now part and parcel of this unique city.

Quirky fact number 1: Valletta was funded by a Pope and the nobility of Europe

Following the defeat of the Ottomans, de Vallette’s decision to build a fortified city on the peninsula known as Mount Sceberras was enthusiastically received by the rulers of Europe, many of whom, like Pope Pius V and Philip II of Spain, helped to fund it. Pope Pius even sent Francesco Laparelli, a renowned architect and military engineer, who had worked on the defences of the Vatican and assisted Michelangelo with work on the dome of St. Peter’s, to design the layout of the new city. Laparelli designed the city in a grid pattern that was completely in contrast to the winding streets of Malta’s older towns and villages.

Quirky fact number 2: Lord Byron cursed its streets

The initial plan was that Mount Sceberras, the hilly peninsula on which Valletta was built, would be levelled before building commenced. This plan was soon aborted because the Knights feared that another attack on the island by the Ottomans was imminent. The attack never materialised but by then it was too late and Valletta was built on a hill; because of this, a large number of Valletta’s streets are lined with shallow steps.

 

A popular urban legend claims that the steps were built in this way to allow the Knights in the full armour to stride up and down the streets with relative ease. In reality, the Knights did not go about their daily business in full suits of armour which, by the 17th century had been rendered obsolete by gunfire. You only have to look at the gradient of some of Valletta’s streets to realise that the steps make it easier for everyone to negotiate.

Everyone, that is, except the renowned poet George Gordon, Lord Byron. Lord Byron visited Malta in the summer of 1809 and his limp made it rather difficult for him to negotiate Valletta’s steep steps. This seems to have frustrated him so much that he penned the now immortal line: “Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs, how surely he who mounts you swears”.

Quirky fact number 3: Valletta is the smallest capital city in the EU

The total area of Valletta is 0.8 square kilometres which makes it the smallest capital city within the EU and, according to the website The World Geography, the eighth smallest in the world. But it packs a lot of history into that small area which I hope to share with you throughout the coming year.

Quirky fact number 4: there are 28 churches packed into its miniscule are.

Twenty-five of these churches are Catholic, 1 is Anglican, 1 Protestant and 1 Greek Orthodox. Some of these churches have some very distinct architecture like the austere Mannerist exterior of St. John’s Co-cathedral, the huge dome of the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that dominates Valletta’s skyline, the spire of St. Paul’s Anglican cathedral, the little Baroque gem of St Catherine of Alexandria (also known as St Catherine of Italy) with its unique portico and the Church of Our Lady of Victories that is built over the foundation stone of Valletta and which was the first building to be completed in the new city.

Quirky fact number 5: Valletta is home to the only signed painting by Caravaggio.

Michelangelo  Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, was in Malta between 1607 and 1608. During this time he painted one of his biggest (literally) masterpieces: The Beheading of St. John the Baptist. This huge (3.7m x 5.2m) painting is the only one ever signed by the artist, in the blood spilling from the Baptist’s cut throat, and today hangs in the Oratory of St. Joh’s Co-cathedral. It depicts the execution of St. John the Baptist (the patron saint of the Order of St. John) while Salome stands nearby with a golden platter to receive his head. This painting, with its wonderful use of chiaroscuro, is considered to be one of Caravaggio’s greatest masterpieces.

Image via Wikipedia

So those were the first five quirky facts about Valletta. I hope you enjoyed them. Join me next month for five more quirky facts about Malta’s capital city.

All images (except the Caravaggio) © Sincerely, Loree