The view from Valletta’s The monumental and austere City Gate, a masterpiece of palimpsestic architectural design, is an impressive example. Below me, the walls of the 16th century that encircle the city’s fortified port are visible. A 1950s Triton water fountain and Art Deco freezes adorn the rest of this scene, which is also crowded with Corinthian column, Art Deco, and other elements of maritime history. The distant hills have Baroque churches atop them and are home to prehistoric megalithic ruins dating back to as early as 3600 BCE.
Malta, like many other islands in the Mediterranean Sea, bears the marks of various occupying forces, such as the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. RomansFrench and British ruled between 1813 and 1964. In 1980 UNESCO The World Heritage Committee has designated the tiny capital of this country as a World Heritage Site. It is described as “one the most concentrated historical areas in the World” with 320 monuments packed into 136 acres. In contrast to the chaos in many Mediterranean port cities nearby, there is a quiet, orderly atmosphere here. It’s the legacy of Knights Templar who occupied the city in 1530 and strengthened much of the island after the Crusades.
The City Gate, despite its rich history, is proof of Malta’s commitment towards the future. The Italian company completed a larger project in 2014 that resulted in the fifth structure on the site. Renzo Piano Building WorkshopRebuild the gate and redesign the area surrounding it. The firm reduced the architectural elements that had been added over the years and restored the dramatic medieval stone ramparts of the city. The project brought clarity to the city’s old quarter and opened up the way for subsequent development.
Guillaume Dreyfuss is the manager of exhibitions for Valletta. Malta International Contemporary Arts Space (MICAS), opened last year, with the mission of boosting Malta’s culture infrastructure and increasing its role in contemporary art. The building, which is located just 10 minutes from the City Gate in Valletta, shows how the city has a knack for integrating the past with the present. It occupies an 18th-century hospice—a concept established in Malta nearly a millennium ago to care for the tired, sick, and dying who passed through on pilgrimages to and from the Holy Land. The Florence-based architecture firm Ipostudio gutted the space and created a Chutes and Ladders–style gallery experience full of modern sky bridges and restored tunnels and secret staircases. A giant knitted tree by Portuguese Artist Joana Vasconcelos climbs up into the skylit rotunda. In the landscaped gardens, Ugo Rondinone’s bluestone sculpture sits. The warren of darkened rooms below features mesmerizing kinetic lights sculptures by British Artist Conrad Shawcross. MICAS highlights work from the island as well, Dreyfuss hastens to add as we walk past a metal-and-rod sculpture by the celebrated local artist Raymond Pitrè.
Malta has been a pawn for centuries in the chess game of European civilizations. But its soul is Mediterranean as a constellation new restaurants remind diners. Local ingredients that were previously overlooked are now making their way onto the menus. At Ion Harbour, dishes like rossi prawn and sea jelly with a whey-and-smoked-pike-roe sauce helped it become the first two-starred Michelin restaurant on the island last year; the wine list includes offerings made from such indigenous grape varieties as Ġellewża and Girgentina. The year-old Le GV At the moment, 1926 Le Soleil hotel Plates of creative dishes such as amberjack, sea urchin and pink grapefruit zabaglione.
Malta, unlike most other islands in the Med is a sovereign country, giving it unique powers to accelerate development. In 2024, the KM Malta Airline was born, the Sliema ferry terminal underwent a major transformation and the Valletta Cruise Port Terminal launched new services. Sicily Other ports in the Malta archipelago will also be able to host a Six Senses Hotel by 2027, including Comino where a Six Senses is slated for opening. Malta has also implemented some of the strictest environmental guidelines in the region for tourism. Gas-powered cars will be phased out by 2030, and electric charging stations will be installed on cruise ships to reduce emissions by 90%.
