Historic Malta: the ancient temples, palaces and sites to visit

One of the best-preserved neolithic sites in the world, Malta’s temples date back as far as 3600BCE, making them older than Stonehenge and around a thousand years older than the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The adjoining sites of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra make a perfect introduction to this period of history, with a visitor centre giving more background on the people who built them and highlights of the megalithic temples. The sites themselves are a short walk apart on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, featuring some colossal slabs of stone weighing as much as 20 tonnes, and architectural details designed to align with the sun at the equinoxes and solstices. Statues known as the ‘fat ladies’, thought to be fertility goddesses, have been excavated here.

Hagar Qim

One of the most unusual historic sites in Malta, this underground burial complex dates back to 4000BCE and was among the first places in the country to be named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Discovered in 1902, the Hypogeum covers 500 square metres, with pottery, ornaments, carvings and figurines unearthed along with human bones. Today, all three levels have been excavated, with the deepest room lying 10.6m under street level, containing four separate niches. You can still see one of the higher-level chambers with the original burial items inside.

Valletta’s Archaeology Museum is unmissable if you’re interested in historic Malta, housing many of the artefacts excavated from sites around the islands. Set inside a baroque building in the centre of the capital, the museum’s displays take you on a journey from 5000BCE, with the collection including everything from Bronze Age daggers to Phoenician sarcophagi, as well as the ‘fat ladies’, statues believed to represent fertility goddesses from the megalithic temples on Malta and Gozo.

Located on Malta’s smaller sister Gozo, Ggantija is another of the oldest prehistoric sites in the islands, with the two ancient structures built between 3600 and 3200BCE. The huge megaliths are some of the best-preserved, with evidence that the walls were once painted with red ochre and fire pits and bone finds suggesting the area was used for rituals or feasts. According to legend, the temples were built by a giantess, and more statues believed to be of fertility goddesses have also been found here.

Ggantija

The cathedral in Valletta is one of the grandest buildings in the capital designed by the Knights of St John, completed in 1577. Officially the co-cathedral along with the Metropolitan cathedral of St Paul in Mdina, the ornate gilded interior is magnificent, with tombs of past Grand Masters of the Knights in the crypt below. Eight of the nine chapels are dedicated for each of the ‘langues’, the geographical and language groupings of the knights who came from across Europe, with the last dedicated to their patron saint, Our Lady of Philermos. Apart from its Baroque architecture and ornate décor, the cathedral is most famous for Caravaggio’s painting, The Beheading of St John the Baptist, the largest work by the artist and the only one to bear his signature.

The heart of power in Valletta, the Grand Master’s Palace also served as the Governor’s Palace under British rule, as well as the seat of the country’s first constitutional parliament, and now houses the Office of the President of Malta. Inside, you can explore the restored State Rooms, showing what the palace was like when the Grand Masters ruled, along with the Throne room and Ambassador’s room. The Armour’s extensive and varied collection is considered to be among the best in the world, featuring armour worn by Grand Masters including Jean de Valette, as well as weaponry from across the centuries.

One of a series of catacombs dotted around the island, St Paul’s Catacombs sit just outside Mdina in Rabat, and are the largest and most impressive on the island. Dating back to around the 4th century BCE, the sprawling network of passages and tombs which are typical of Roman cemeteries, but also show some of the earliest evidence of Christianity in Malta. Two carved circular tables, thought to have been used for funerary rites, still survive at the entrance, before a succession of tombs spread out over more than 2,000 square metres, with inscriptions and symbols showing they were used for Christian, Pagan, and Jewish burials.

Mdina

Much of the Roman city of Melita lies buried under modern-day Mdina, when it was the most important settlement on the island, stretching outside the current medieval walls. And the Domus Romana is the perfect place to learn more about Malta’s Roman history. The villa dates back to the 1st century BCE, with a small museum introducing you to Roman Malta, with sculptures and information about life and death on the island. Then there’s the opportunity to walk through the remains of the villa, with intricate mosaic floors still preserved in situ, and a tranquil garden containing more of the villa’s foundations outside.

Across the water from Valletta in Vittoriosa (Birgu), the Inquisitor’s Palace was originally built in the 1530s to house a civil tribunal, until the first representative of the Holy Roman Inquisition arrived on the island in 1574 and it was renamed the Inquisitor’s Palace. Since the Inquisition was abolished by the French in 1798, it has been preserved so visitors can get a sense of the elegance enjoyed by the high-ranking clerics who lived there, along with the more austere official areas, such as the tribunal chamber, torture chamber and prison complex. As well as exploring the historic palace, from the kitchens to the Inquisitor’s private quarters, the palace also now houses the National Ethnography Museum and National Textiles Collection.

Malta has been called Fortress Island, with successive rulers building forts in an attempt to protect the island against attack from the sea – not always successfully. Many of the forts survive to this day and are open to the public, including Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa (Birgu), which was the original headquarters of the Knights of St John, and the star-shaped Fort St Elmo across the Grand Harbour which was built in 1552. Both played a vital role in the siege of 1565, with Fort St Elmo now housing the National War Museum. Malta’s 18th century Fort Manoel is also popular as a filming location and has occasional public open days, while 17th century Fort Ricasoli was transformed into the Colosseum for the filming of Gladiator 2.

Find out about our holidays to Malta and explore the historic island for yourself