The plotting board
It tracked the bombing raids on the island.
Pi3.124 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Frank Vincentz — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Frank Vincentz — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Frank Vincentz — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Allied Mediterranean command post beneath Valletta's bastions: a tunnel network the Knights cut into the rock and the British expanded in the Second World War into a hardened operations centre forty metres down — from which Eisenhower, Montgomery and Cunningham directed the invasion of Sicily in 1943, the largest amphibious landing in history before Normandy. The rooms are restored as they were: wall maps with their pins, the operations table, the cipher room, the telephone exchange and the aircraft plotting board that tracked the raids on the island — and the audio guide plays real recordings and voices from those days. After the war it became NATO's Mediterranean command in the Cold War until 1977, then was abandoned and restored by volunteers. The entrance is from the ditch below the bastion near the lift — and the temperature inside stays pleasantly steady in summer.
It tracked the bombing raids on the island.
Secret communications gear as it was left.
Triq is-Sur ta' Lascaris, Valletta
Our Lady of Victories ChurchThe oldest building in Valletta, and the first thing built in it. Its foundation1 minute walk4.6
Upper Barrakka GardensMalta's best view, and free: the Upper Barrakka Gardens sit on Valletta's highes1 minute walk4.6
The Saluting BatteryA historic artillery battery on a platform below the Upper Barrakka Gardens, loo2 minutes walk4.8
MUŻA National Art MuseumThe national art museum in the Italian knights' auberge: Malta's art museum move3 minutes walk4.3
Triton FountainA large bronze fountain directly outside Valletta's City Gate, and the first thi4 minutes walk4.6Passages are narrow and low in places but the rooms are roomy and the tour short; the severely claustrophobic should choose the War Museum at Fort St Elmo instead.