04-15-2016: Floriana and Valletta

We had a very long, wonderful, tiring day today.  We were out exploring Floriana and Valletta for over 12 hours and between us we took over 250 photos.  It’s going to be difficult to cull these down for this post, so settle in for a lengthy read.

Floriana was of interest to us because it is here that a Caruana property was sold, and with the proceeds from her share of the inheritance Christine booked our flat for this trip.  So off to Floriana we went on the #13 bus.  We got off at the Mall, which is a long, narrow swatch of garden and trees that runs for blocks. I had read that there was a botanic garden nearby, so we headed to Argotti Gardens.

Along the way, we passed a beautiful gothic church.  I was surprised to read that it was a Wesleyan Church.  It is now a cultural and arts center, Robert Samut Hall.  Although the facility was not open, Christine chatted up a guy coming out.  He and his jazz band, Noir, were setting up in the hall for recording their first album.  He invited us in to see the inside of the hall.  Apparently, the Malta National Symphony uses this hall for their rehearsals.  The outside is much more interesting than the inside.

Across the street from Samut Hall was a beautiful round chapel, originally built in 1583.  It was rebuilt in 1686 by one of the Grand Masters.  Although not so ornate, Eve, this reminded me vaguely of Radcliffe Camera.

We then went to Argotti Botanic Garden.  It is one member garden of GardMed, an organization dedicated to preserving Mediterranean gardens.  Argotti was first created in the early 18th century, of course by one of the Knights Grand Masters.  It is a fascinating place.  It has about 4 different levels (up and down) and some spectacular views of the inland countryside.  Unfortunately, much of the garden was closed due to an exhibition for school kids that had various activities.  I think the management didn’t want all these kids running through some of the more delicate sections of the garden.  But no matter, we thoroughly enjoyed strolling around the place.

There was a statue in the garden, ANZAC, which commemorates the Austrailian and New Zealand Army Corp in their Gallipoli involvement in WWI.  The inscription of the statue is a stanza from the Laurence Binyon poem, For the Fallen.  We will come across this again later in the day.

We then wandered around Floriana taking in the sights.

We found, we think, the property that enabled us to be here.

We then started to make our way into Valletta, choosing to stay close to the Grand Harbour side.  We strolled through Preziosi Gardens which afforded us wonderful views of Grand Harbour.  We saw that huge yacht, Indian Empress, from Manoel Island at sea in the harbour.  We also saw dghasjas that our friend Deeny asked about.  In researching, we learned that dghasjas were used as water taxis especially during WWII to ferry sailors from ships in the harbour to the cities.  It is clear that the dghasjas still exist and are still being used as water taxis from the Three Cities across the harbour to Valletta.

Across Grand Harbour are the Three Cities.  Birgu, Bormla and Isla, commonly known as the Three cities, were renamed to Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea respectively by the Knights of St. John following the against-all-odds success in repelling the Ottoman Empire during the Great Siege of 1565. These fortified cities pre-date Valletta.

We continued into Valletta up through the courtyard in front of Auberge de Castille, one of the Grand Master’s palaces.  The Auberge houses the Maltese Prime Minister and its courtyard is the location of many public demonstrations.  Currently, one of the Maltese ministers is apparently involved in the Panama Papers scandal and so there have been daily demonstrations calling for this minister’s resignation.

By now, we’re quite tired and in need of a sit-down and lunch, so we picked an outdoor café close to where we had lunch the other day.  This place was the Kantina Café & Wine Bar.  We had a lovely lunch of focaccia sandwiches.  We struck up a conversation with a nice Swedish couple.  They appreciated the opportunity to practice their English.  Their son just moved to Malta, so they are enjoying frequent visits here to see him.

After lunch, I wanted to do a walking tour around the outside of the city along the city walls.  I have this book of walks, and the Valletta walk seemed interesting.  We had difficulty finding the right direction, though, because the book kept referencing going right, and the map we had showed the things mentioned as being left.  At any rate, we went left.  As we were going around a cavalier, and down towards the city wall, we came across the Fortress Builders Museum.  We made a quick run through the museum, which if you’re interested in the progress of fortress building over history, this is the place for you.  It was kind of interesting, but the best was we were in the bowels of part of the city bastions.

Moving on, just around the outside of the museum we were rewarded with great views of the famous Carmelite Church dome and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We made our way around the Marsamxett Harbour side of Valletta.  I had wanted to stop at St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral.  It’s an Anglican cathedral and I was curious about it.  Unfortunately, it is only open in the mornings.  Maybe another day we’ll come back.

So around the walls we walked heading to Fort St. Elmo’s. We passed a couple of karozzins, the horse-drawn carriages that are around Valletta.  You can hire a karozzin for a tour.  It sounds lovely to hear the horses clip-clopping along the old cobblestone streets.

Somewhere along this side we got our best view across Marsamxett Harbour to Manoel Island, where the remains of Fort Manoel can be seen.  There is a huge project underway to reconstruct this fort.  This was the headquarters of the British Navy in Malta during WWII.

At the end of Valletta is Fort St. Elmo.  We didn’t go in it, but here are a couple of views.

We then came to a place where the Malta Experience, a movie about the history of Malta, is shown.  It was time for another sit-down, so we bought tickets to the show and sat out on a terrace overlooking the Grand Harbour enjoying a beverage until show time.  The movie is a 45-minute history lesson from the pre-temple period through Malta’s entrance into the EU.  Much of the movie focuses on the Great Siege (1565) and the Knights of St. John.  It’s a nice overview, and in an air-conditioned theater!

When we bought our movie ticket, we also purchased a tour of the Sacra Infermeria, across the street, which we found to be incredibly interesting.  The Sacra Infermeria, or the Holy Infirmery, was a state-of-the-art hospital at the time of its establishment by the Order of the Knights of Malta in 1574. It had a capacity of over 600 beds, and a non-discriminatory criteria for admission – meaning any man of any social class would be accepted.  Women were not accepted.

The Knights of St John originated as a ‘Hospitaller’ order, charged with a holy mission to aid and protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem, as well as tend for the sick. Their skills in the field of medicine were amongst the most advanced in Europe, even to the extent of complex surgical techniques. Contrary to the norms and practices of their time, the Knights  were also diligently hygienic in their ministrations; the silver cutlery which the hospital used was not an extravagance but rather among the Order’s many concessions to hygiene.

The great ward where the upper classes were treated, one to a bed, is a very, very, long narrow room, 161 meters (528 feet) and 11 meters (36 feet) wide.  In the photo, there is a curtain across the room about mid-way, so this great hall goes on and on.  Each patient space had a bed and a toilet.  The toilet was within these little alcoves along the wall.  What makes this unique is the well thought-out sanitation.  There was a hole in the floor for the waste.  There was a hole in the wall that went out to the garden outside where citrus trees and herbs were growing.  The aroma from the garden helped to keep the smell more pleasant.  Each of the toilet alcoves would have a color-coded curtain indicating the type of illness the patient had, sort of like infection control. There were wide windows higher up every few beds to permit fresh air and sunshine to enter.

This building was 6 stories, but each story was below, ultimately with a level at sea level so that a Grand Master could make a speedy exit if need be.  Below the grand ward was the ward for the lower classes, three to a bed.  This ward wasn’t quite as long as the great ward, but nonetheless, had all the same methods.   Here’s the below ward.

The Sacra Infermeria building has been now converted into the Mediterranean Conference Center, so these wards are now used for official functions, which you can see all decked out in the photos above.  The building is really beautiful.

After the Sacra Infermeria, we continued on to the Great Siege Bell WWII Commemoration.  This bell is rung once a day, at noon, and there are warning signs to not be standing next to it then.

There is also a statue at this site commemorating the war dead.  This statue has part of the stanza from the Binyon poem that we saw this morning at Argotti.

The Great Siege Bell commemorates Malta’s significant role in WWII and King George VI awarding Malta the George Cross.  I won’t go in to Malta’s role now (this post is already too long), but suffice to say, the sacrifice made by the Maltese during the war is heartbreaking and heroic.

Interestingly, this very night there was a re-enactment of the awarding of the George Cross, which was awarded 74 years ago on April 15.  We had heard about this from cousin Carol and so we reserved seats for the ceremony.  This is a very special historic moment for the Maltese, the bestowal of the George Cross.  We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the re-enactment.

The re-enactment occurred on the same spot in St. George Square in front of one of the Grand Master palaces.  We couldn’t see much of what was going on in the way of performances in the square, but military and police bands and color guards were going through their paces.  I always love a good band.

On a large screen set up in the square, they showed a movie about what happened in Malta during the war, especially from 1942 to 1944.  It is unimaginable that the Maltese persevered and survived after near starvation and incessant bombing.  Watching the film brought tears to my eyes and I thought of how difficult it must have been for Rose, Christine’s mother, who worked in a Victory Kitchen.  Then came the very stately presentation of the George Cross.  The Maltese are very proud of their George Cross, as they well should be.  The band played some more and the event ended.  It was worth seeing and was moving.

We ended our long day on the 13 bus back to Sliema.  We arrived back at the flat exhausted, but full from the information gained and the sights experienced.  What an adventure we had!