Overview
Valletta is best known as the fortress the Knights built after 1565 — but the capital carries a second, later story too: the WWII siege that earned the whole island the George Cross, alongside a living theatre, art museum and nightlife street that make it more than a preserved monument.
Travel
Valletta's fame rests mostly on the Knights Hospitaller and the 1565 Great Siege, but the capital's twentieth-century history is just as remarkable and far less told. During the Siege of Malta in 1940-42, Valletta and the Grand Harbour absorbed some of the heaviest sustained bombing of the Second World War, targeted for the harbour's strategic value to Allied Mediterranean operations. The island's endurance was recognised in April 1942 when King George VI awarded the George Cross to Malta as a whole — the only time the honour has ever been given to an entire population rather than an individual — and the Cross still appears on Malta's national flag today. The National War Museum, inside Fort St Elmo, tells that siege story directly, a different WWII narrative from the Lascaris War Rooms' own focus on planning the 1943 invasion of Sicily. Valletta's cultural life runs alongside its history: the Manoel Theatre, built in 1731 by Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, remains one of Europe's oldest theatres still in regular use for opera and drama. MUZA, the National Museum of Fine Arts, reopened in 2018 inside the restored Auberge d'Italie as part of Valletta's year as European Capital of Culture — the same year that helped revive Strait Street, once the raucous sailors' nightlife strip nicknamed "The Gut" through the colonial and wartime decades, now a genuine bar and restaurant revival rather than the rough district it once was.
Across the Grand Harbour from Valletta, the Three Cities — Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua — are where the Knights first settled and where the Great Siege of 1565 was actually fought. Vittoriosa's Fort St. Angelo and its marina-front lanes deliver the harbour's history with a fraction of Valletta's foot traffic, and the traditional dgħajsa water taxis crossing from below the Barrakka lift are the correct way to arrive — a few minutes on the water that double as the best view of both fortified shorelines.
Frequently asked questions
Diplomatic missions in Valletta
2 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.
Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.