BUSES. Virtually all buses begin and end in Valletta.

An amazing 16th-century walled city that was built to protect Malta from a Turkish invasion. The city is made mostly of limestone and i's definitely an architectural wonder and Malta's current capital city. During the day it bustles with life and energy as a center of commerce and government. At night it is like a ghost town, a place of eerie, though lovely peace and quiet.

The Fortress City, Citta' Umilissima, "a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen". Valletta has many titles, all recalling its rich historical past. It is the "modern" city built by the Knights of St John; a masterpiece of the baroque; a European Art City; and a World Heritage City. But these are just some of its faces and fortunes.

Valletta is also Malta's capital city: a living, working city, the administrative and commercial heart of the Islands. Nowhere in Malta is the life of the Islands reflected more than here. The city is busy by day, yet retains a timeless atmosphere. The grid of narrow streets house some of Europe's finest art works, churches and palaces.

Valletta hosts a vast cultural programme. Street events are staged against the city's magnificent baroque architecture and floodlit bastions. There is theatre and music and all manner of things to see and join in, from avant garde art to traditional church festas. The city is a delight to shop in: narrow side streets are full of tiny shops selling antiques, maps, books, prints and jewellery. For top quality fashion, music and much more try Valletta's main streets - Republic Street and Merchants Street.

Walking around Valletta, you'll come across an intriguing historical site around every corner: votive statues, niches, fountains and coats of arms high up on parapets. And when you need to stop and take it all in, the city yields up squares, courtyards, gardens and any number of cafés, right on cue.

History
Valletta is named after its founder, the respected Grand Master of the Order of St John, Jean Parisot de la Valette. But the city really owes its birth to his arch enemy, Grand Turk Suleiman the Magnificent.

When the Knights arrived in Malta in 1530, they had settled in the small village of Birgu (Vittoriosa), which was protected by Fort St Angelo. They managed to enlarge the old St Elmo watchtower on the Sceberras Peninsula opposite, but their defences were still weak. The strategic importance of Mount Sceberras was to become all too evident during the Great Siege.

Valletta had been planned before the siege. But the plans could only be executed once a grateful Christendom had lavished riches on the Knights for their defeat of Suleiman. Pope Pius V and King Philip of Spain gave financial aid and loaned the services of an outstanding military engineer, the Italian, Francesco Laparelli.

The magnificent fortress city grew on the arid rock of Mount Sceberras peninsula, which rises steeply from two deep harbours, Marsamxett and Grand Harbour. Started in 1566, Valletta was completed, with its impressive bastions, forts and cathedral, in the astonishingly short time of 15 years.

A Modern City
Laparelli had a unique opportunity to create the perfect city. Valletta may not strike you as a modern city, but it is one of the first examples of town planning based on a grid pattern of streets.

The city catered well for all strata of society, from the Knights to their servants and trades people. Laparelli's design provided for fresh water to be piped in, and for sanitation; both advanced concepts for the time. The grid of streets allowed for fresh air from the two harbours to circulate easily in the narrow streets – a kind of city-scale air-conditioning.

Valletta is a fine example of a planned, 16th century city: unusual for the times, since urban centres mostly evolved from earlier settlements. The rocky Mount Sceberras on which it was built was not an easy location: it took considerable levelling before construction could begin. La Valette died in 1568, before the city was completed. By 1571, enough of the city was built to allow the Knights to transfer from Birgu.

Laparelli left Malta in 1570, but work was continued by the Maltese Architect Gerolamo Cassar. Cassar was responsible for most of the major early buildings from the Cathedral of St John to the Sacra Infermeria, the Auberges or Innes of Residence of the Knights and the Magisterial Palace.