Malta landmarks: monuments, fountains and curiosities

What Malta landmarks are worth a detour

Some of the most memorable stops on the islands are not on any list of top attractions. They take ten minutes, cost nothing and say something about a place: a fountain that stood in front of a city entrance since 1959, a memorial to a war that shaped the islands, a railway line now remembered by one station. This hub gathers fifteen of them, grouped so they can be added to a day in Valletta, on the coast or in the countryside.

Valletta: the walk from gate to bastion

The classic starting point is the Triton Fountain, three bronze tritons holding up a huge basin outside City Gate, Valletta’s front door since 1959 and the natural start for a walk into the city. Inside the walls, the Monument to Jean de Valette is a 2.5-metre bronze of the Grand Master in the square that carries his name.

From there the route runs to the bastions. The Upper Barrakka Lift is a glass-and-aluminium lift of almost 60 metres that links the harbour with the Upper Barrakka Gardens in under half a minute. Below the gardens, the Saluting Battery is where the noon and afternoon guns are fired, with an open-air museum and harbour views. On St Christopher Bastion, the Siege Bell War Memorial has a rotunda, a bronze bell that rings daily at noon, and a bronze sculpture.

The harbour and the Three Cities

Across the Grand Harbour, Dock No. 1 in Cospicua is the first dry dock built by the British in the Mediterranean, dating to 1848, now a landscaped promenade with a footbridge across the dock. In Birgu, the Birgu Ditch is a restored main ditch between two bastions, with walkways, a casemated battery and a caponier. It is easy to walk after seeing the fort.

Cemeteries and memorial places

Cemeteries are quiet places and some of the most informative. Addolorata Cemetery in Paola was laid out in the 1860s with monumental tombs, family crypts and a neo-Gothic chapel on the hilltop. Ta’ Braxia Cemetery in Ħamrun is a non-Catholic cemetery commissioned in 1856, with around 5,000 burials and a Gothic chapel by John Loughborough Pearson. The Msida Bastion Historic Garden in Floriana is a restored Protestant cemetery on the bastions, with about 530 known burials from 1806 onwards.

Rail, sculpture and countryside

Malta Old Railway recalls a line that ran from 1883 to 1931. The former station in Birkirkara, the Mdina station building, one wagon and some tunnels remain. On the north-east coast, the Love Monument by Richard England stands on Spinola Bay in St Julian’s, with inverted letters that read correctly in their reflection. A few minutes away in Sliema, the Cat Statue is a big, colourful sculpture by Matthew Pandolfino in Independence Garden.

Above Siġġiewi, the Laferla Cross is a 16-metre iron cross on a limestone pedestal, reached by a Way of the Cross path and known for Good Friday pilgrimages. On Gozo, the Salt Pans on the north coast are a chequerboard of rock-cut basins where sea salt is still made in the traditional way.

Some background to the stories

Many of these landmarks answer a question the larger sights leave open. The Siege Bell and the Saluting Battery belong to the same corner of Valletta, and both link to the Great Siege and the Second World War memory that runs through the capital. Dock No. 1 and the Birgu Ditch fill in the Grand Harbour, showing how the British and the Knights each reshaped the same water. The cemeteries record who lived here: Maltese families, foreign soldiers, merchants and craftsmen.

Taken together, the stops make a different kind of tour from the usual temples-and-churches route. They suit a rainy morning between bigger visits, a free afternoon after a museum, or a walk with no ticket booked.

Fitting them into a day

Most of these take under an hour, so they work as stops. The Valletta group fills a morning on foot, finishing at the noon gun if the timing works. The cemeteries suit a quiet afternoon, with respectful dress. The railway stops, the cross and the salt pans are better with a car, and the salt pans pair naturally with a day on Gozo’s north coast.

Most are outdoors and free of shade, so spring and autumn are the more comfortable seasons. Check current times for anything with fixed events, such as the guns or the bell.

Bring a camera for the sculptures and a light jacket for the sea-front stops, where the wind picks up in the evening.