Valletta Classics: Caravaggio's Cathedral, Grand Harbour & Knights' Fortresses
Explore Europe's smallest capital city and UNESCO World Heritage Site—two Caravaggio masterpieces in a dazzling Baroque cathedral, the Grand Harbour panorama from the Barrakka Gardens, 450 years of power in the Grand Master's Palace, and Fort St Elmo where the Knights of St John made their legendary stand.
- 1
St John's Co-Cathedral – Baroque Masterpiece
Built by the Knights of St John between 1573 and 1578, this austere exterior conceals one of Europe's most dazzling Baroque interiors. Every inch of the nave walls is carved in intricate relief; the floor is composed of 400 polychrome marble tombstones of knights. Two Caravaggio masterworks—The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome—hang in the Oratory.
- 2
Upper Barrakka Gardens & Grand Harbour Views
These formal gardens on the upper tier of the city's fortifications offer the most celebrated view in Malta—the sweeping panorama of the Grand Harbour, the Three Cities opposite, and the fortified creeks where the Knights of St John repelled the Ottoman fleet in the Great Siege of 1565. The noon gun fires daily from the Saluting Battery below.
- 3
Grand Master's Palace & State Rooms
The Palace of the Grand Masters has served as the seat of power in Malta for 450 years—from the Knights of St John through the British Governor-General to the current President of Malta. The State Rooms display an extraordinary collection of Gobelin tapestries, armour, and frescoes; the Palace Armoury below contains 5,000 pieces of armour and weapons from the Knights' era.
- 4
Republic Street & Valletta's Urban Grid
Valletta was the first planned city of the Renaissance—laid out in a grid by the military engineer Francesco Laparelli in 1566 on a bare limestone promontory. Republic Street (Triq ir-Repubblika) is its main axis, lined with baroque palaces, the National Museum of Archaeology, the Grand Master's Palace, and ending at Fort St Elmo overlooking the sea.
- 5
Fort St Elmo & National War Museum
The star-shaped Fort St Elmo guards the tip of the Valletta peninsula where it was besieged and eventually fell to the Ottomans in 1565 before the relief of the Great Siege. The National War Museum within the fort covers Malta's extraordinary role in World War II—the only nation awarded the George Cross collectively by King George VI in 1942.
- 6
Waterfront & Three Cities Ferry
The Valletta Waterfront—a row of restored 18th-century warehouses converted into restaurants and bars—lines the quayside beneath the city's fortified walls. Frequent ferry crossings take five minutes to the Three Cities across the harbour (Vittoriosa, Senglea, and Cospicua)—medieval fortified towns with intact Baroque churches, the Malta Maritime Museum, and the Knights' original hospital and auberge buildings.