Visit to the National War Museum

Thursday March 8 was cloudy with a high of about 17C.  There were a few drops of rain late in the day.  It can get quite breezy, so without sun, it feels a bit cooler.

Queen Victoria in the daylight

We stopped at Lot Sixty One for a coffee.  The barista already knows our order- one espresso and one macchiato.

Alain with his macchiato

It was only a 10 minute walk to our destination- Fort St. Elmo and the National War Museum.

Entrance to shop and ticket purchase

From 1975 to 2014, the War Museum's collection focused mainly on World War I and World War II.  It was refurbished in 2015 and its collections now include exhibits ranging from the Bronze Age to Malta's entry into the European Union in 2004.

Fort St. Elmo was built in the form of a star by the military engineer Piertro Pardo in the middle of the 16th century.  It played a crucial role during the Great Siege of 1565, where it resisted for 30 days.  It was rebuilt after the Siege and expanded over the years.

Near the entrance to the Fort

Views from the Fort

Ships passing in the Grand Harbour

Abercrombie Casemates originally housed guns aimed at incoming vessels.  Later they were used as offices.

During the Great Siege of 1565, supplies and men from Birgu were brought in through this gateway under cover of darkness.

La Porta del Soccorso 1552  - note eye above gate.  Sign says erected 1552, restored 1943

We then passed the Chapel of St. Anne, also dated 1552.  The Chapel housed an icon of the saint which had been brought to Malta in 1530 by Knights.  The chapel was the final battleground of the Great Siege- Knights and chaplains were slaughtered here as they defended the alter.

Inside the Chapel

Outside the Chapel of St. Anne

We entered the parade ground which had living quarters for the commander, knights and chaplains arranged around the outside.  The Church of St. Anne was built in 1729 by Grand Master Perellos.

Inside of Church

Outside of the Church of St. Anne on the parade ground

The War Museum was divided into seven sections and each was housed in a different section of the fort.  Because two sections were being worked on and not open, we got a reduced rate.   The first section was a small room dedicated to artifacts from 5000 BC- 1530 AD (Prehistory to the Middle Ages).

Early earthenware

The next section, which was closed, dealt with the arrival of the Knights of the Order of St. John and the Great Siege of Malta.  Luckily, this is one part of Malta's history we had already experienced with our visit to St. John's Co-Cathedral.

The third section dealt with life under Three Rulers- the Knights, the brief French interlude and British rule until the First World War.


A very clear message from the entire exhibit was "that Malta's history is its geography.  Because of its location at the heart of the Mediterranean and the crossroads of Africa, Europe and the Middle East no other 316 km sq of land was so strategically vital to so many civilizations."














The Knights were ascendant in Malta from 1530-1798.  The Museum contained detailed information on a number of the Grand Masters.

In 1798, the French fleet arrived off the coast of Valletta. Napoleon sent a letter to Grand Master Hompesch demanding that the French be allowed to enter Valletta and take on supplies.  Hompesch refused as Malta was neutral in the war.  Napoleon ordered his fleet to bombard Valletta.  In June 1798, treaties were signed and the Knights' rule was over.

Napoleon only spend about a week in Valletta, but the French established a garrison of 4000 men in Malta.  Interestingly, the French initially implemented some progressive policies- they rid Malta of the Inquisition and established a new legal framework and civil code.  Slavery was abolished and all slaves were set free.  Schools for Maltese children were founded and the religious university was replaced with the science-based Ecole Centrale.

However, the Maltese began to resent the French occupiers who had begun to plunder the Churches.  The French then barricaded themselves inside Valletta.  Approximately 10,000 irregular Maltese soldiers surrounded Valletta, but the fortress was too strong to attack.  The Maltese sent urgent requests for help to Lord Nelson and the King of Naples. Help arrived from Britain later in the year.  By the summer of 1800, the French forces were in a desperate way- they capitulated in September 1800 and handed Malta over to the British.  The Maltese declared that they wanted to be ruled by the British.  Sir Alexander Ball was named Civil Commissioner.

At the table pictured below, representatives of the French and British signed a treaty confirming the departure of Napoleon's men.

Actual table where 1800 treaty was signed

British rule begins.  In 1830, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli visits Malta and is impressed with the beauty of Valletta's streets, saying they are "something between Venice and Cadiz."

Man the torpedoes 

The next section of the exhibit was from 1914-1942 focusing on "British Authority from the First to the Second World Wars".

During the WWI, Malta becomes the "Nurse of the Mediterranean" caring for the wounded from many nations

There was a large section about WWII.  In 1940, the Italians entered the war and immediately started to bomb Malta, which had very few airworthy planes.  There were three Gloster Sea Gladiators later nicknamed Faith, Hope and Charity.  They were kept in the air by a rota of pilots which created the impression that Malta was more heavily defended than it really was.  Faith is the only survivor of the three Gladiators which participated in the defence of Malta during the early days of the attack.  For 10 days they flew non-stop missions.  Faith was restored and presented to the people of Malta by the RAF in September 1943.

Faith

View of Faith in the exhibit room

There was a copy of the Times of Malta dated July 28, 1941 noting that it was the "695th day of war against Nazism".

Views from this section of the fort.

The fifth section of the exhibit was entitled World conflict: 1942-1945: World War II and Malta.

Signage outside the 5th section

The blitz of Malta was brutal.  As the poster below says- Malta became the most bombed place on earth.

The museum had the original of the April 15, 1942 note from George VI awarding the George Cross to the Maltese population.  The Cross is displayed with the note.

Presenting the George Cross 

Jeep that Roosevelt rode in when he was in Malta

The sixth section dealt with the period from 1946-2004 and was entitled "Malta's Determination: From post-war reconstruction to independence and EU accession".  The displays were in what had been prisoner cells and featured video displays.

1947- finally men and women get the vote

Independence from Britain came in 1964 and Malta became a Republic in 1974.  The Queen was removed from Malta's currency.   In 2004, Malta joined the EU.

Another view from the Fort

More guns

One of the first cats we have seen- looked well fed

We walked back to the centre of Valletta.  We have seen a number of British phone booths which actually have working phones in them.  Alain checked out the booth.

Long time since we've seen these

We passed by another interesting church- the Parish Church of Our Lady of Fair Havens.  On July 2, 1591, Pope Pius V founded this first parish of Valletta.  The first church was replaced with a  new one that was inaugurated in 1815.

The Parish Church of Our Lady of Fair Havens

We stopped for a very late lunch at La Pira, a small family-run restaurant with a Maltese menu. It is housed in a 300-year old building.  We had a delicious bowl of home made Maltese fish soup  ("Aljotta")with mussels and whitefish, and some bruschetta with tomatoes.   We are planning to return for dinner on Friday.

Alain with his fish soup

Moi aussi

In front of La Pira 

We stopped at the apartment and then headed out to check out the Women's Day March which was meeting at the City Gate.  The theme was stopping violence against women and all forms of sexism.

It was lightly raining and there was only a small (but mighty) group.   We took some pics and then later caught up with them at the end point of the march a few blocks away at the ad hoc memorial to the assassinated Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Poster for the march

Gathering at the City Gate

We walked to the top of the Renzo Piano stairs near the gate to take more pics.

Renzo Piano's stairs near the Gate

Stairs and side of Parliament building

The stairs lead to the area with the Gardens and the Prime Minister's Offices where we had gone on our Free Tour on Wednesday.

One more pic of the Prime Minister's Offices 

We wandered around for a bit longer as the rain had stopped.  We found an excellent chocolate shop with brands from around the world, including some chocolate bars from my favourite Sicilian chocolate shop.  We headed back to the apartment for a home cooked meal by Alain.  On Friday, we head to Rabat and Mdina, about a 30 minute bus-ride away, for a day-trip.