Maltese Cultural Heritage
With 7,000 years of history, the unique Maltese Islands historic legacy, is reflected in the country’s national architecture and collections.
Cultural Heritage is often associated with museums and archaeological sites, but Malta possesses a much higher extensive patrimony of heritage assets. The Maltese islands also possess a unique, but fragile cultural landscape that has been shaped by seven millennia of human activity. Geological features, topography and the intricate resources of the land have conditioned the many ways in which Maltese culture and identity have developed over the centuries.
The list of Maltese heritage sites is dominated by the Islands’ prehistoric megalithic temples and underground chambers. They are both fascinating and perplexing, for there are no definite answers to how and why they were built, or for what they were used.
‘The Sleeping Lady’, a clay figurine of exquisite craftsmanship found at the Hypogeum (and now displayed at the National Museum of Archaeology); as well as the temple altar slabs with their distinctive spirals, are constant themes of artists working on the Island today.
There are also many other areas of heritage and culture to be explored, like the 16th century masterpiece Grandmasters’ Palace (which is now the parliament), the “Sacra Infermeria”, the St. James Centre for Creativity, as well as many others.
Apart from the prehistoric and Phoenicians heritage, one may also encounter important sites from the Bronze Age, as well as Phoenician and Roman periods. Some of which are found at Skorba, near the temple-building where St Paul’s Catacombs represented the archaeological of Christianity in Malta; the Domvs Romana has mosaics which rank among the finest and oldest compositions in the western Mediterranean; and San Pawl Milqi is the site of a large Roman agricultural villa which provides evidence of the Islands’ thriving olive oil trade in classical times.
With the arrival of the knights of St John, baroque Malta saw the building of fortifications, wonderful palaces, churches and a network of small cities, towns and villages that today form the historic centres of the archipelago’s urban landscape. During the British period new fortifications and new road infrastructures were built all around the Maltese Islands. The war experience led to great demographic shifts as well as to the creation of several underground shelters. The Second World War also saw the destruction of one of the major architectural and cultural projects undertaken by the British, known as the Opera House.
Despite its small size, Malta holds three sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These are the City of Valletta, the Megalithic Temples and the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum. The capital of Malta, Valletta was built after the Great Siege of 1565 and named after Grandmaster Jean Parisot de la Valette,. This fortified city has hundreds of monuments, all within a relatively small space, making it one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world. Valletta has also been named as the Capital of the Culture 2018.
As anecdote, we can add that recently, the yellow old Maltese buses are considered amongst the latest addition to Maltese heritage, since they are recognized by everybody as a sign of Maltese culture.