MALTA: DAY 2, PART 1 - WALKING AROUND VALLETTA, ST. PAUL'S SHIPWRECK CHURCH AND CHAPEL, AND MORE

 March 19, 2024

We began our second day in Malta with breakfast in our hotel. I love Eggs Benedict, and I would give these a 6 or 7 out of 10--better than most, but not great. 

Julia joined us in the hotel lobby and led us on a walking tour of Valletta, the capital city. Valletta is set on a hill, and the streets are positioned to maximize cool breezes from the Mediterranean Sea. What are those round things in the street on the right?

They are restaurant tables. and how do you set up tables on a hill? You make wedges to go under the downhill legs. Do they do this for the chairs too? I don't know.

Is it too early for gelato? 

There are many churches dedicated to St. Paul on Malta. The first one we visited was St. Paul's Shipwreck Church, built in the 16th century and one of Valletta's oldest churches. 

We entered through the vestry (left), decorated in subdued colors and with many of its chandeliers covered with cloth bags. Walking into the church was like Dorothy opening her front door in Oz.

I love the vibrant colors.

Here is Paul saying hello (bottom right)! This 17th-century wooden statue is paraded through the streets of Malta every February 10th, which is St. Paul's Shipwreck Day.

The painting in one of the domes shows the fateful storm that led to Paul's ship being wrecked on the rocks off the coast of Malta.

The greatest treasures in this parish church are two relics related to St. Paul.  The first is contained in a glass reliquary under a statue of Joseph holding the Christ child, and within the glass case is a muscular right forearm made of gold, and within that is what some believe to be the wrist bone of the apostle Paul.

Another glass case contains a silver head on top of a marble pillar with what looks like either gray hair or sheep's wool around the base. The pillar is said to be a section of the pillar upon which Paul was beheaded. That's an artistic rendering of his beheaded head. Gruesome. What from a distance looked like hair around the base is actually a garland of silver flowers.

Our guide Julia's comment about the relics was, "Two popes said they are authentic, so they must be authentic, right?" 

With a church THIS unique, you can't have boring tombstones. Nope, let's go for something more pictorial. It blows my mind that this is a parish church--not even a cathedral. 

One of the domes has paintings from the lives of the saints (below left). I love the way the halos shine in the darkness. A close-up of one of the triangular panels just below the dome shows a unique 3-D halo projecting around the angel's face like a pioneer bonnet.

I like being able to see this crucifixion scene both from the nave and from the perspective of the figures themselves.

Back out  on the city streets, I had a strange encounter with Frida in a shop window. Is she following me?  She's everywhere.

We passed by a beautiful 18th-century Baroque building that originally housed the court of justice and now is the ministry of health. 

There's Paul Boffa again, the first prime minister of Malta who served from 1947-1950. Remember him from yesterday? This statue is by Maltese sculptor Vincent Apap. (Remember that name.)

The Upper Barrakka Gardens are on the upper tier of the fortifications we had seen the previous day:

This garden was originally used by the Italian knights, and the terrace arches in the background were built in 1661 by one of them.

There are a couple of monuments that I found especially interesting, one of which is this bronze bust of Sir Winston Churchill, created by Vincent Apap (the same artist who created the Boffa sculpture above) and presented to Churchill on his 80th birthday as a thank you after World War II. Julia told us he didn't like it much and essentially returned it, diplomatically saying, "My heart will always be with Malta. Keep this there as a memorial from me."  I think it is a fabulous capture of Churchill's bulldog expression.

Another sculpture I liked is this bronze of Les Gavroches (the Street Boys), created by Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortino in 1907. It was inspired by the Victor Hugo novel Les Misérables.

The Upper Barrakka Gardens are the highest point on the city walls and provide a stunning view of the harbor.  

We also had a view of the Lower Barrakka Gardens, which include a 16th-century row of cannons called the "Saluting Battery" and a floral landscape design of the Maltese Cross.

The Maltese Cross originated in the 16th century and was used by the Knights of St. John.

I think this cute green lizard was the only wildlife we saw on Malta (other than birds):

Bob saying hello to one of the horses pulling buggies that tourists could hire.  (Bob was on the lookout for a meal of horse meat, a Maltese speciality, so this friendliness seems a bit disingenuous.)

The Our Lady of Victory Church (below left) is probably the oldest church on Malta. Construction began in 1566 to commemorate victory of the Knights of St. John against the Ottoman Empire in the Great Siege of Malta of that year.  As we passed the bronze statue in the church square (below right), my first thought was that it was Shakespeare, which seemed a bit odd.  Of course, I was wrong. It is Jean de Valette, the city's namesake, who lived from 1495-1568 and led the Knights of St. John against the Ottoman Turks in the above-mentioned siege. He also laid the foundation stone for the city of Valletta.

I'm not sure what he is holding up. Maybe plans for a new city?

This was one of our great finds: a large basket of fresh local strawberries. At 5 € a basket, they weren't cheap, but there were enough to share and we all thought they were the best strawberries we've ever had, at least since our childhood.

This is the little market where we bought them.

Such a charming place!

I love the door knocker with the Maltese Cross laid over the Japanese-style fish.

Our next stop was the Chapel of St. Paul, which tradition says was built on the site where some Maltese locals built a fire to warm Paul and his companions after their ship crashed on the rocks and they were washed ashore. This church is also (and more poetically) called the Chapel of the Bonfire. According to local legend, it was at the bonfire built here that Paul was bitten by a poisonous serpent but was unaffected. (Julia pointed out that Malta has never had poisonous snakes.)

Unfortunately, the chapel was closed and we were not able to see inside.

This chapel received a direct hit by an enemy bomb in March 1942. It was rebuilt between 1950 and 1956. 

Across the water we could see the rocky islet where the shipwreck is said to have occurred.

A loose quoting of the story in Acts in the New Testament is on a placard on the outside wall. We saw it in several more languages.

The Maltese Cross is inlaid in the floor.

The legends connecting Paul to Malta were what drew Bob to including Malta in our itinerary. It was really fun to see these places and hear the stories.