Valletta

Valletta was founded on 28 March 1566, the year after the Great Siege, when the Order of St John resolved to build a fortified city on the Sciberras peninsula. It is named after Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette. The engineer Francesco Laparelli drew up the plan of straight, wide streets, and after his death in 1570 the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar oversaw construction and designed many of the early buildings. The city became the capital on 18 March 1571.

The knights held Valletta for around two and a half centuries, filling it with churches, palaces, the auberges of the Order's national langues and a hospital. British rule followed in the 19th century, and in the Second World War the city was heavily bombed; the Royal Opera House was among the buildings destroyed. UNESCO inscribed the City of Valletta on the World Heritage List in 1980, recognising some 320 monuments within a very small area, and in 2018 it was European Capital of Culture.

Valletta is both a living neighbourhood and the seat of government: Parliament, the President's office and the Prime Minister's office are all inside the walls, and on weekdays the streets fill with office workers. Each parish keeps its own festa, with decorations, band marches and fireworks in summer, and the city's churches remain places of everyday worship as well as heritage sites. Modest dress is expected inside churches.