History
An archipelago at the centre of the Mediterranean with a wealth of heritage. Home once to ancient civilisations and Europe’s nobles. Malta’s location at the heart of the Mediterranean is the key to its rich history.
At the crossroads of maritime routes, the Islands have been a home, stronghold, trading post and refuge over 7000 years of history. From temple builders, seafaring Phoenicians and the traveller Apostle Paul, to the Knights of St John, Napoleon and British royalty - all have set foot here leaving their imprint for you to discover.
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The Islands have several World Heritage sites: the enigmatic, prehistoric temples; Malta’s baroque capital Valletta, founded by the Knights; and the walled, medieval capital, Mdina, where descendants of Norman families still live today. The palaces and cathedrals of Valletta and Mdina house some of Europe’s finest treasures.
Wander around the sister island Gozo and explore gems of a rural life largely untouched by time. And hike across a rugged, terraced landscape fashioned by man over a millennium ago.
The Islands present a kaleidoscope of past and present: a fascinating legacy of European culture and rural Mediterrranean traditions.
Prehistory (c.5200 - 4000 B.C.)
The Maltese Islands are rich in archaeological sites and artefacts from the some of the earliest traces of human settlement in the world. Yet so little is known for certain about the beliefs and organisation of these prehistoric societies.
Malta and Gozo's temples and the underground chamber of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum are designated World Heritage Sites. They hold equal fascination for tourists and archaeologists.
Man was present on the Islands for around 1500 years before the megalithic phenomenon began. The earliest signs of human activity in Malta date back to the Neolithic Period of about 5000 BC. Evidence of New Stone Age Man was found at Ghar Dalam, a cave near Birzebbuga in the south of Malta. The cave also revealed fossilised bones of numerous animals such as dwarf elephants. This indicates that Malta was at one time a land bridge between the European and African continents.
When man arrived on the Islands, he would have found a landscape very different to the rocky arid
one today; one more wooded and with more animal life.
However, these early farmers would have had to bring with them almost everything they needed to survive, from domestic animals to grain.
It is a feat in itself that these people managed to cross from Sicily. They would have made many voyages, on craft probably little more than rafts. The journey could have been made only at a few times in the year, weather permitting. In addition to being competent farmers, these early dwellers would have needed a good knowledge of seafaring and the elements.
A major prehistoric site was discovered at Skorba, in the north of Malta. Here, we learn more of how they lived: pottery fragments have been discovered similar to those found in Sicily. These cave dwelling farmers seem to have retained contact with Sicily - traces of obsidian, a volcanic rock, and flint, continued to be imported into Malta for use in tools. Though we have no evidence that there was any cultural transfer between the two islands.
These Neolithic farming communities appear to have had spiritual beliefs. In the so-called 'Skorba Shrine' fragments of the earliest representation of human form were found: unmistakable female figurines, perhaps indicating belief in a 'mother goddess' or a fertility symbol.
What happened to these farmers is unclear. But by around 3500 a new people, probably also from Sicily, arrived to replace Malta's Neolithic man. We know them as the people whose beliefs inspired the building of Malta and Gozo's megalithic monuments.
The Temple Builders
(c.3600 - 2500 B.C.)
Between around 5500 and 4500 years ago, the Maltese Islands were inhabited by an extraordinary society, one both intelligent and resourceful. The Islands witnessed a unique, megalithic, building phenomenon.
The lives and beliefs of these early Maltese Islanders are shrouded in mystery. But they left us an indication of their lifestyle and their level of sophistication through an impressive number of elaborate structures which are still standing today.
The temples in Ggantija, Gozo, are considered the oldest, surviving, free-standing monuments in the world. They predate the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and Stonehenge in southern Britain by around 1000 years. The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Paola is an outstanding feat of prehistoric engineering, is a labyrinth of passageways and chambers dug out of the rock. It is the only underground temple and burial place of its kind in the world.
Other temples, those of Hagar Qim, Mnajdra and Tarxien, as well as a dozen other sites seem to confirm the theory that Malta was a "Sacred Island" - a kind of centre of worship and mystic practices for prehistoric communities in the region.
This new people to inhabit the Islands after Neolithic man probably also came from south-eastern Sicily. We find their early rock-cut tombs at Zebbug and Xemxija, Malta; and at Xaghra, Gozo. The tombs were already in the three-lobed or trefoil shape developed later and more fully at the major temple sites. These catacombs were perhaps the forerunner of enormous underground complexes, such as that of the Hypogeum. Though this site and the smaller chambers at Xaghra remain the only significant ones discovered to date.
By the time of the construction of Ggantija, these farmers had developed a new cultural system, in total isolation and without any foreign influence. Although these people kept in contact with their ancestoral home Sicily and voyaged as far as other Italian islands, Pantelleria and Lipari, for trade, there is no evidence of any cultural exchange. Their temples and beliefs remain unique to the Maltese Islands.
The temple culture came to a mysterious end by around 2500 B.C. No one knows whether these people died out, were subjugated by invaders or simply left the Islands. They were replaced by peoples from various parts of the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age.
The Romans
The Roman period is of great importance in the Islands' history. It saw the introduction of Christianity to the Islands and wedded Malta's future to fortunes of the European continent.
Before the Romans took Malta, they had to subdue their enemy, the Carthaginians (a western Mediterranean branch of the Phoenicians). The Carthaginians were a threat to the emerging, and later supreme, Roman empire. During a series of wars, known as the Punic Wars, between 264 - 146 B.C, the Romans took control of Malta. The Islands became a free municipium, or free town.
Malta seems to have prospered under the Romans. The Islands begin to be mentioned in written records. The Roman senator and orator Cicero commented on the importance of the Temple of Juno on Melita, and on the extravagant behaviour of the Roman governor, based in Sicily. St Paul's shipwreck here in A.D. 60 is described in the Bible. Although the villas, temples and baths found here indicate a life of relative stability and well being, the Islands remained in effect an outpost of Sicily.
In the late 19th century, a 1st century B.C. Roman house, known today as the 'Roman Villa Museum', was found just outside Mdina and Rabat. It contains some fine floor mosaics and was furnished with marble statues, some depicting the reigning imperial family.
Rabat is home to two sets of catacombs which were in use throughout the Roman period on Malta: St Agatha's, with its frescoes; and St Paul's catacombs, where the Apostle is said to have stayed. The Romans here appear to have tolerated religious diversity. St Paul's Catacombs, which date to the 4th and 5th centuries, have several Jewish menorah symbols carved in the stone.
Another key Roman site was found near Birzebbuga, in south-east Malta. Here an enormous cistern some ten cubic metres in volume was discovered. As at other Roman settlements, finds also included an olive-crusher. The frequent occurrence of such implements shows that oil production on Malta was considerable during Roman times.
Some oil lamps exhibited at the Roman Villa bear Christian symbols such as the initial letters of Christ in Greek.
After the division of the Roman empire at the end of the 4th century, the Maltese Islands were left almost in obscurity during the Bzyantine Period, the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire of the East, based in Constantinople. The Byzantine period lasted for another 375 years until North African Berbers, spearheading the expansion of Islam, took over the islands in 870 AD.
St Paul in Malta
Christianity has almost 2000 years of history in Malta. According to legend, it was brought to the Islands by none other than the Apostle Paul himself in around A.D. 60.
Paul was being taken to Rome to be tried as a political rebel, but the ship carrying him and some 274 others was caught in a violent storm only to be wrecked two weeks later on the Maltese coast. All aboard swam safely to land. The site of the wreck is traditionally known as St Paul's Island, and is marked by a statue commemorating the event.
The welcome given the survivors is described in the Acts of the Apostles (XXVII) by St Luke: ". and when they escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.
And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire and received us everyone ".The reference to 'barbarous' indicates that the people spoke neither Latin nor Greek. Ancient Maltese derived from Phoenician.
As the fire was lit, Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake but he suffered no ill effects. The Islanders took this as a sign that he was a special man. This scene is depicted in many religious works of art on the Islands.
According to tradition, the Apostle took refuge in a cave, now known as St
Paul's Catacombs in Rabat, Malta.
During his winter stay, he was invited to the house of Publius, the Romans' chief man on the Islands. It was here, according to tradition, that Paul cured Publius' father of a serious fever. Publius is then said to have converted to Christianity and was made the first Bishop of Malta. The Cathedral of Mdina is said to stand on the site of Publius' house.
Whatever the legend, archaeological evidence shows Malta was certainly one of the first Roman colonies to convert.
The Arabs (870 - 1090)
As with all who made the Islands their home, we can trace the Arabic legacy here too. They left their mark on the Maltese language and in the names of many towns and villages in Malta and Gozo, such as Marsa, Mdina, Mgarr, Mqabba, Ghajnsielem, Rabat, Xaghra, Zejtun and Zurrieq. Though there is little visible evidence of their stay, apart from the few gravestones unearthed.
They introduced new crops, including cotton and citrus fruits, and innovative agricultural systems, such as irrigation, to Malta. The distinctive landscape of terraced fields is the result of ancient Arab methods. Many delicacies of today's Maltese cooking, like that of its neighbour Sicily, owe their origins to Arabic imports - figs, almond, sweet pastries and spices.
The Arabs saw Malta, as did the Romans' before them, as a useful outpost to Sicily. They seem to have tolerated the Christian beliefs of the Islanders. But with military matters to the fore, they occupied and extended the old Roman fortifications, later to become Fort St Angelo and the town of Mdina.
Arab rule on Malta came to an end after a long battle with the Normans who crossed from Sicily. The Normans had taken Sicily from the Arabs after a 30-year struggle. A certain Count Roger secured the Maltese Islands for the Normans in around 1090. From now on, throughout the Middle Ages, the Islands' fortunes were tied to those of various European nobility and royals.
The Normans & Middle Age
Tradition has it the Maltese national flag is the legacy of the Norman Count Roger. In battle with the Arabs, he apparently tore his red and white chequered flag and gave half to the Maltese men at arms.
Most accounts of Maltese history skip lightly over the Middle Ages. Probably because once again, Malta played a secondary role in the plans of its rulers to its larger neighbour Sicily. But this period saw the rise of a Maltese nobility, who built their palaces in the walled Mdina. The city remained an enclave of the Maltese gentry for the centuries to come. You can see fine examples of Siculo (Sicilian)-Norman architecture in the city today.
For the rest of the population, the Middle Ages were time of poverty. There were frequent raids from the north African and Turkish barbary corsairs. The Maltese and especially the people of Gozo (Gozitans) were taken off for slavery.
The Islands passed through the hands of numerous European royalty and nobility: German princes, French aristocrats and more: the fate of the Maltese Islands depended on marriages, treaties and alliances.
The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile unified Spain in 1479. It was under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, that the Islands became part of the Spanish Empire. And it Charles who granted the Islands to the Knights of the Order of St John.
The Knights
of the Order of St John
(1530 - 1798)
It is hard to miss the legacy of the Knights in Malta. They gave the Islands one its best-known faces to the world, the eight-pointed Maltese Cross.
No era has left such an imprint on the Islands as the 250-year rule of the Order. From their daily lives to their valiant battles, all is documented in the archives, architecture and folklore of the Maltese Islands.
To trace the Knights, start in the places they made home: the Three Cities and Fort St Angelo; then Valletta, the baroque, fortified city they built. You'll sense their presence by wondering through their palaces, courtyards and gardens.
Across the Islands, you'll find more evidence of their stay in their military engineering and architectural feats: forts, bastions, watch towers, acquaducts, churches and cathedrals. Not to mention the rich patrimony they bequeathed the Islands with works of art, furniture, silverware and sculpture. Less evident, but none less important, is the place they gave the Islands in the history of medicine.
Their Sacra Infermeria in Valletta was the foremost hospital of Europe in its day.
The Great Siege
(1565)
If it had not taken place, the Great Siege would no doubt have been dreamt up for the screenplay of an epic film. Few other historic episodes rival it for sheer heroism, the bloodshed of war and military strategy. Voltaire is quoted as saying 'rien est plus connu que la siege de Malte' (nothing is so well known as the Siege of Malta).
The story of the Siege is interwoven with the tale of two adversaries, the ageing Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, and his contemporary, the Barbary corsair Dragut Reis who commanded the fleet of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. It is also the story of thousands of lives of Maltese Islanders, men at arms to the Knights of St John.
The years leading up to the Siege saw the Islands under constant threat from the Ottoman Turk. In 1551, the Ottomans carried out an audacious raid, which saw most of Gozo's population captured and taken into slavery. In 1559, the Knights responded, but with a disastrous attack on the Ottoman stronghold, Djerba, on the Tunisian coast.
The Knights knew they were vulnerable in Malta despite the harbours and their two forts, St Angelo, in what is now Vittoriosa, and newly-built St Elmo, on the open peninsula of Mount Sciberras overlooking the harbours (later known as Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour).
Grand Master La Valette had done his best to build defences and had requested extra forces from the Emperor Charles V, the Pope and the Viceroy of Sicily.
But no help came. In May, 1565, a vast Ottoman fleet, some 40,000 men, lay siege to the Islands. The Knights were heavily outnumbered with a mere 700 or so men and around 8000 Maltese regular troops. The Islanders took refuge in the fortified towns of Mdina and Birgu (Vittoriosa) destroying crops and poisoning wells as they fled.
The Ottomans first decided to attack isolated Fort St Elmo, on the Sceberras peninsula, because of its commanding position between the two harbours. Repeated assaults were launched over 36 days, but the small garrison of Knights held on to the fort for far longer than Suleiman's men anticipated. After four weeks, they finally overran St Elmo but at a heavy price: the loss of 8000 men. Dragut was fatally injured during the taking of St Elmo. Under his co-commander, Mustafa Pasha, the Ottoman troops now had St Angelo in their sights.
It is the battle for St Angelo which saw some of the bloodiest episodes of this Holy war. It was to the basis of legends for centuries to come. Mustafa Pasha was to launch some 10 attacks on the walls of St Angelo and the fortified Three Cities throughout the long, hot summer of 1565. Even on 18th August, when a huge part of the defences were breached, the Ottomans failed to take the Fort. Vallette himself had even entered the battle fray and despite the uneven odds for success, he had refused to accept the Ottoman's terms of surrender.
At one point in the battle, the Ottomans floated the headless corpses of captured Knights across Grand Harbour. The act was returned in kind: Vallette ordered all Ottoman prisoners to be executed and their heads used as 'cannon balls' to fire back toward their compatriots in St Elmo.
By September, the Ottomans were concerned about having to remain in Malta during the winter, and their morale began to ebb. At this point, Vallette's long-awaited relief forces appeared at Mellieha Bay and took control of high ground inland. Almost trapped, the Ottoman troops retreated, but not before losing thousands more men.
The Great Siege ended on 8th September, commemorated today with a public holiday, il-Vitorja. The epilogue to the Siege was twofold: the Knights of St John in Malta had seriously diminished the power of the Ottomans. And Malta's magnificent capital, Valletta, was founded by and named after Grand Master Jean de la Valette. Valletta was to be not only a fortress city, but the cultural home to some of the finest works of 16th - 18th century Europe. Vallette himself was buried in the city some three years later.
The French
(1798 - 1800)
The French domination of the Maltese islands was short and turbulent. Their arrival in 1798 had promised otherwise since Napoleon and his troops were initially welcomed by the Maltese. However, this was prompted more by a growing dislike of the incumbent rulers, the Order of St. John, than by any real affection for the revolutionary ideals of France.
Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Malta was part of a strategic design to conquer Egypt and then gain India and the Far Eastern colonies of the British Empire. Keen to control the massive fortifications and harbours of Malta, Napoleon managed to get a number of Knights and Maltese on his side.
They passed on information and were ready to help promote a popular movement against the Order of St. John and their aristocratic style of government.
Lack of materials, treacherous captains and general confusion, led to the capitulation of the Order within days. The Maltese Islands became another jewel in the crown of Napoleon.
The radical reforms introduced by the new rulers were excessive in the eyes of the locals who were still largely dominated by two institutions - the aristocracy and the Church - and loyal to both. Nobles and general populace alike began to see Napoleonic laws as an attack on their beloved Church and a threat to their traditional way of life.
Within three months of the French take-over, the Maltese revolted and forced the occupiers to withdraw behind the fortifications of Valletta and the Three Cities. They remained there until September 1800 when they capitulated to the British forces who had been called in to assist the Maltese in gaining their freedom. The British fleet entered Grand Harbour, marking the start of a century and a half of British rule.
The British in Malta
(1800 - 1964)
The British Period is a very significant era in Maltese history. World Wars and Maltese Independence are the most historic dates of the period. The British legacy lives on in many aspects of daily life: English is an official language of the Islands; there are strong mutual trade and tourism links to Britain; and you can still see old-fashioned British letter and phone boxes on the streets.
After assisting the Maltese to expel the French, the British found themselves sovereign of the Islands, but were at first uncertain as to whether they should retain the territory. The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 established that Malta would be passed back to the Order of St. John, but some locals were not keen to return to their former rulers and requested to remain under British protection.
As it happened, the Peace of Amiens was short lived and the Napoleonic wars resumed. The British were thus committed to defend Malta and would eventually gain full sovereignty of the Maltese Islands by the provisions of the Treaty of Paris in 1814. From then on, Malta became an important part of the British Empire, a strategic stronghold in the region and a stepping stone for Britain's expansion to the East.
Through cycles of war and peace, Malta's fortunes were inextricably linked to those of Britain. This was never more evident than during World War II when the islands played a pivotal role in the Mediterranean theatre of war.
The role of the Maltese Islands during the First World War as a supply station and as a base for the recovery of the injured earned the Islands the title,
'Nurse of the Mediterranean'.
The bravery of the Maltese people during the World War II was acknowledged by King George V who awarded the whole population of Malta his George Cross for valour.
After the war, the movement for self-determination grew stronger and finally Malta was granted Independence on September 21st, 1964. British forces retained a presence in Malta until March 31st 1979 when their military bases on the island were closed. The Islands became part of the British Commonwealth.
Malta in World War II
Along with the Great Siege of 1565, the most documented period of Malta's history is the Second World War. The Islands strategic location once again made it centre stage in the theatre of war in the Mediterranean: a key stronghold from which the Allies could sustain their North African campaign and from which they could launch their eventual attack on mainland Italy.
Before that happened though, the Islands were subject to some of the most severe bombardments of the entire war. The Maltese people may have ended the war with the distinction of being the only entire population to be awarded the George Cross, Britain's highest civilian honour for bravery. But they also ended the war devastated: Malta holds the record for the heaviest, sustained bombing attack: some 154 days and nights and 6,700 tons of bombs.
The British were unsure of whether they could adequately retain or protect Malta. While a perfect strategic location, it was also a difficult place to defend. First Lord of the Admiralty, then Winston Churchill, decided that Malta was vital to war plans and important for supply lines.
Malta entered the war sharply and suddenly. The day after Mussolini declared war, the 10th June, 1940, Italian bombers attacked Valletta and its harbours. The British had only three biplanes on the Islands nicknamed Faith, Hope and Charity. You can see 'Faith', now restored, in the National War Museum, Fort St Elmo, Valletta.
Malta became a base for Allied attacks on enemy ships plying supply routes to North Africa and on the Italian air and naval bases. In return the Islands were under constant attack, in a game of return fire. As Churchill predicted, Malta was vital to reducing the effectiveness of the enemy's North African push. But that gain came at a price.
The Islands were always high on the enemy's agenda. Stuka bombers based in Sicily were to pound Malta into submission. Malta's record, that of the heaviest sustained bombing, took place in 1942, and is known as 'The Siege of Malta': the 20th century warfare version of the Great Siege of 1565. From April throughout the summer that year, the Islands were pushed to the brink, almost to capitulation.
Miraculously, a supply convoy, or rather its bombed remnants, limped into Grand Harbour on 15 August. The severely damaged oil tanker, Ohio, and a couple of warships with limited rations, saved the Islands from submission and starvation. The ships were named the Santa Marija Convoy because the 15th August is the religious feast of the Virgin Mary.
In 1943, Malta was one of the launch pads for the Allied invasion of Sicily and later push into Italy. The Italian navy surrendered on 8th September, by coincidence the very same day on which 378 years earlier the Great Siege had ended.
The end of the war saw the Islands economically and physically devastated. In 1947, the Islands were granted some £30 million to help rebuild. But it took several decades and further restructuring once the British forces left Malta completely in 1979, to rebuild the economy.
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