The gun platforms
A full circle over harbour and Three Cities.
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Continentaleurope — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Continentaleurope — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Continentaleurope — CC BY-SA 4.0
A ferry from the Valletta quay every half hour (five minutes, a cheap ticket) to Birgu; from there the fort, the Inquisitor's Palace, the waterfront and Birgu's lanes fill a half day on foot.
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The fort that held through the Great Siege, and from which Malta was governed: St Angelo occupies the tip of the Birgu peninsula at the heart of the Grand Harbour, a fortified site since the Middle Ages — and when the Knights arrived in 1530 they made it their first seat, before Valletta was built. In the siege of 1565 it was the command centre: from here Grand Master Jean de Valette directed the defence while St Elmo fell on the opposite shore, and the fort held for four months until the Ottomans withdrew — its guns still pointing at the harbour mouth. The visit climbs its levels: courtyards, tunnels, magazines and the chapel, the Grand Master's quarters, the rock-cut Gwardamanġa prison, and gun platforms with a full circle of view over Valletta, the Three Cities and the whole harbour — the best view of Valletta is from here, not from within it. The top floor still belongs to the Order of Malta.
A full circle over harbour and Three Cities.
Where Valette ran the defence of 1565.
Birgu (Vittoriosa), Malta