Experience Malta

With Valletta serving as the 2018 European Capital of Culture, this year is a perfect time to visit the Mediterranean island country of Malta.

Section:Gallery

Sat., Aug. 11, 2018

A young boy holds his nose at the popular Sunday fish market at Marsaxlokk, a traditional Maltese fishing village.

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Traditional Maltese fishing boats line the bay at Marsaxlokk, home to a popular fish market.

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The Valletta waterfront is lined with limestone buildings with colorful doors and balconies.

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Sections of the Mnajdra megalithic temple complex on Malta’s southern coast date to the Ġgantija phase, or 3,600 to 3.200 B.C.

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Malta’s Blue Grotto is a popular spot for tourists. Boats take visitors into the sea caves, which can also be viewed from the top of a nearby cliff.

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The Malta International Food Festival, held July 19 to 22, 2018, took place in the recently renovated ditch garden outside the fortified medieval city of Mdina. The festival is seen here July 20 from the bridge leading to the city’s main gate, a filming location for the first season of “Game of Thrones.”

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A narrow, cobbled street in the walled city of Mdina, nicknamed the Silent City, is seen here at night.

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Cafe seating runs down the middle of Merchants Street in Valletta.

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Colorful, enclosed, wooden balconies adorn limestone buildings in the Maltese capital of Valletta.

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Stairs beneath Casa Rocca Piccola in Valletta lead to bomb shelters used during World War II.

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The summer dining room at Casa Rocca Piccola, a 16th-century palace of a noble Maltese family in Valletta, overlooks the garden in the courtyard in the center of the palazzo.

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These pikes are part of the collection at the Palace Armoury at the Grand Masters’ Palace in Valletta.

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The Palace Armoury at the Grand Masters’ Palace in Valletta features armor from the 16th century, including the era of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, when Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully attempted to invade the island.

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The Triton Fountain, completed in 1959 and recently restored, lies just beyond the recently remodeled City Gate at the entrnace to the walled city of Valletta.

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A statue of Mary is paraded through the streets of Zurrieq, Malta, during the town’s July festa honoring Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

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A statue of Mary is paraded through the streets of Zurrieq, Malta, during the town’s July festa honoring Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

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A statue of Mary is paraded through the streets of Zurrieq, Malta, during the town’s July festa honoring Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

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At sign at the recently remodeled entrance to Valletta reminds visitors that the city reigns as the 2018 European Capital of Culture.

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The Palace State Rooms at the Grand Masters’ Palace in Valletta offer a look into the workings of the Order of St. John.

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A memorial is set up at the Great Siege Monument alongside St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta in honor of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb in October 2017 not far from her home in Bidnija, Malta. July 16 marked the nine-month anniversary of her death.

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Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta is a high-Baroque, Roman Catholic cathedral with rows of ornate chapels running along a wide nave and a floor of intricate, inlaid-marble tombs. Here, the nave is seen from the cathedral’s open balcony, 45 steps up a narrow staircase.

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The realism masterpiece “The Beheading of St. John the Baptist,” completed in Malta in 1608 by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is one of the top reasons to visit Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

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The entrance of Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, a high-Baroque, Roman Catholic cathedral in Valletta, opens onto this square.

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The courtyard garden at Casa Rocca Piccola, a 16th-century palace of a noble Maltese family in Valletta, includes a fountain that’s home to two turtles. The staircase in the foreground leads to an old cistern that was converted into bomb shelters during World War II.

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SR At the Saluting Battery in Valletta, seen here from a perch in Upper Barrakka Gardens, a ceremonial cannon salute is fired daily at noon.

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Ground was broken for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of Ta’ Pinu on the island of Gozo in 1920. It was consecrated 12 years later.

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Outside the village of Gharb on the island of Gozo, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of Ta’ Pinu displays letters, paintings, photos, baby clothes, seat belts, even casts and crutches, from pilgrims grateful for answered prayers, such as surviving grave illnesses or accidents or giving birth to a healthy baby.

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The Blue Hole on the island of Gozo is one of the most famous dive spots in Malta. An underwater arch located 10 meters below the surface connects it to the open sea.

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Swimmers cool off at the Blue Hole on the island of Gozo.

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Maltese opera singer, Joseph Calleja, a tenor, (left) climbs the steps to the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Cittadella on the island of Gozo in mid-July.

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Valletta’s Grand Harbour is seen here from the Upper Barrakka Gardens, which offers sweeping views of the harbore and Three Cities of Birgu, or Vittoriosa as well as Senglea and Cospicua.

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This lift connects the Upper Barrakka Gardens to the Valletta waterfront below, dropping 190 feet in 25 seconds.

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Boat houses are built into the limestone cliffs on the southwest side of Gnejna Bay.

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