Even the landing approach is spectacular: After hours over the sea, the plane has reached Malta’s rocky coast, gliding over farmsteads and villages surrounded by natural stone walls, over green-brown plains, hills covered with grapevines and white rock, before the promontory of the metropolis and its three neighboring cities become visible: Valletta, Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua.
From a bird’s-eye view, in the middle of the Mediterranean, you can see a symphony of stone: soaring, compact fortress walls, elongated house fronts like guard towers, behind them the domes of the churches.
But it’s not gloomy, dark or oppressive, because the sun’s rays illuminate one of the largest and deepest natural harbors in Europe, the Grand Harbor Valletta, all year round. Malta offers more than 3000 hours of sunshine a year, even in November, the rainiest month, there are still an average of 160 – more than anywhere else in Europe.
But who would fly to Malta just to splash around and sunbathe? The 316 square kilometer archipelago (smaller than Usedom in total) simply offers too much for that. In the British colony that existed until 1964, where English is still the second official language, there is a keen sense of the difference between fun and joy, i.e. between superficial fun and joy with depth, as in the former mother country.
The latter is particularly evident in Valletta. The best thing to do is jump straight into the fray – behind you is the Instagram photo hit of the Triton Fountain and the venerable “Hotel Phenicia”, in whose ballroom Queen Elizabeth II once danced. Malta’s capital is a real magic box.
Despite its many historic walls, the European Capital of Culture 2018 has nothing narrow and narrow, but offers transparency and breadth. Staircases on both sides of Republic Street, the Parliament designed by star architect Renzo Piano on the right. There are also cafés and fashion boutiques, but without the blatant tinnef offered for sale.
Just like in the former home of the Knights of Malta, a remarkable balance is maintained between nonchalance and a sense of style, openness and unpretentious dignity. As a marble statue, Queen Victoria looks down seriously from her pedestal in front of the National Library, inside which ancient books and folios take visitors on an unexpected journey through time, but outside, in the surrounding restaurants and bars, life hums until late at night.
Mind you: humming, not making noise, and the mirror-smooth stone tiles and cobblestones in the adjacent streets leading down to the harbor are clean and sparkling like the windows of the red telephone boxes from British times (which are now only decorative, of course).
What is illuminated in many colors in the evening is already a magnet during the day. For example, the magnificent “Auberge de Castille” (each knightly country had its own palace until they were expelled by Napoleon). Or the lavishly decorated St. John’s Co-Cathedral. Or the narrow streets with their green-painted balconies and stepped sidewalks with small café tables.
Even if some of the facades are weathered and the yellow-gold glowing Malta stone crumbles a little here and there, they trigger a kind of mental cinema: Old inscriptions evoke the age of knights, while picturesquely bent metal signs that once belonged to a “Regency House”. or promoted “Tailor” and “Engraver”, evoking memories of the British era.
Whereby cinema by no means only takes place in the mind: Scenes from Steven Spielberg’s political thriller “Munich” were filmed in Malta, as well as “Gladiator” with Russell Crowe and the fourth season of “Das Boot”.
A real journey through time beyond canvas and screen is then available in the Casa Rocca Piccola (guided tour dates at casaroccapiccola.com), where a real blue-blooded guides you through the history of his noble family, which dates back to the 13th century. The now 81-year-old Nicholas de Piro is of course no dried-up snob, but a shrewd art historian who has turned the city seat of his ancestors into a fascinating private museum full of valuables, paintings, jewelery and precious wood furniture.
Here only the illustrious ancestors look sternly out of their gold frames, while the head of the house in jeans leads lightly through the rooms and a hall of mirrors and makes moderately ironic remarks about the British influence. Like this one: “Perhaps it’s a plus that English cuisine has hardly left its mark here.”
That’s right, fortunately. There are British-looking noble pubs with green leather armchairs and a gigantic range of gin, but no fish-and-chip atrocities. On the other hand, in restaurants such as “Aaron’s Kitchen” and the rustic “Il-Gifen”, the finest local dishes, such as fried octopus or the national fish Lambuki, are best enjoyed with one of the fine white wines from the trendy Markus Divinus winery.
Now freshly strengthened down to the port, whose massive architecture is indirectly due to the Ottoman Sultan: He had unsuccessfully tried to conquer the island in 1565, whereupon those gigantic fortifications were built to be armed against such threats in the future. Also here: how lavishly the sun shines on the stone, how finely worked every detail is on closer inspection!
And what a joy it is to climb into one of these slim, elegant wooden boats called Dghajsa in Valletta, which are reminiscent of the island’s Phoenician past and bring not only travelers but also locals to the other side of the harbor to the three sister cities – but no longer by oar, of course , but with the help of a small motor.
In Vittoriosa, too, cozy alleys lead into an interior that is not oppressive, but widens out between the houses to form green squares. Stairs take you deeper (or higher) into the labyrinth in which the Johanniter once had baroque churches, forts and palaces built.
The Inquisitor’s Palace or Fort Angelo may also be reminiscent of violent events from the past – the contrast to the current peacefulness is all the greater. Also, the three-city ensemble is not a Moloch, but the path from Vittoriosa to Senglea and Cospicua along the harbor basin is a kind of promenade, not overcrowded and also a place for discreet flirting – just a place of joy.
If you are looking for more sights, you can go on excursions. The effort is manageable, thanks to the small size of Malta, so it never degenerates into stress. For example, the idyllic fishing village with the tongue twister name Marsaxlokk is worthwhile.
Or a visit to the Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum, which reveals the impressive remains of a Neolithic civilization that existed here 3000 years before Christ and then mysteriously disappeared.
Not enough? Then off to the venerable hill town of Mdina with its monasteries, palaces and churches, in which the apostle Paul is remembered, who, according to tradition, is said to have evangelised right here.
This unique combination of history, Mediterranean lifestyle and sun results in that joy feeling so typical of Malta. Here it is a pleasure to follow the trail of the stones without feeling crushed by them.
This also applies to the extensive tunnel system under Valletta’s city walls, which is of paramount importance for today’s free Europe: Here, in the “Lascaris War Rooms”, which can now be visited as a museum, was the secret command center of the British in World War II. Thanks to the planning originating from here, Hitler’s advance in North Africa was stopped, and logistical help that was decisive for the war was sent from here to the front for the liberation of Italy by British and US troops. Who would have thought it: an important cornerstone for Europe’s post-war peace order was laid right here.
Getting there: Direct flights, for example with Lufthansa or Air Malta, from Frankfurt and Munich to Valletta, flight time around 2.5 hours. There are currently no corona restrictions for entry.
Accommodation: “The Phenicia Malta”, legendary luxury hotel with garden and pool, where Elizabeth II was a guest, double room from EUR 190, phoeniciamalta.com. “Hotel Juliani”, modern boutique hotel with roof terrace and sea view, double rooms from 120 euros, hoteljuliani.com.
Information and tours: The German-speaking Malta expert Sabine Attard guides individually and in small groups (attard.sabine@gmail.com). More information at malta.reise and visitmalta.com/de.
Participation in the trip was supported by the Malta Tourist Board. You can find our standards of transparency and journalistic independence at axelspringer.com/de/Werte/downloads.
