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| Image from “Black Mountain – Part 3” |
and Hiking
By James T. Carney
Photos by
Detmar Straub
The island of Malta was a major fortress in the war with air bases built into caves and air raid shelters in many public buildings. The tourist picture of Malta envisions blue skies, sunny days, and sandy beaches, but the reality is a little different: Malta is very hilly and often the hills run down to the sea, so there are not nearly as many beaches as one would expect. Warm sunny days may characterize the summer, but not March with temperatures in the 50s and frequent stiff winds.
We did have beautiful blue skies, except for our first-day hike. The hike was supposedly five miles long, but one hiker’s pedometer was already showing five miles at about the halfway point, when her pedometer broke down. It was a damp, rainy day, although the rain wasn’t heavy and didn’t bother us very much.
We hiked along the shore for the most part, past a number of partly built (or partly demolished) hotels, whose presence showed the effect of the Covid recession and the cessation of development. It reminded Det and me of Montenegro, which had seen a similar abandonment of development after the Great Recession.
The high point of the day was clogging up a mud field to the Red Tower – one of a series of watch towers built in a line over all three islands by the Knights of Malta in the 17th and 18th Centuries to raise the alarm when the garrison saw Turkish or Barbary fleets preparing to raid the islands. The Red Tower was built in 1659 and equipped with canon that were supposedly able to hit hostile vessels. (I was skeptical they had that far a range.)
The Red Tower was rehabilitated in the 20th Century. It and the hotel are located at the north end of the island in the district (or parish, as labeled by the English) of Mellieħa. This district had been sparsely inhabited for centuries because if had a number of harbors where raiders could land and capture the inhabitants to be sold as slaves. The district had only been heavily settled after the British occupation.
The next day, we made a touring trip by bus to the current capital of Malta, Valletta, named after the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John (Hospitallers), a crusading order that defeated the Turks in the great siege of 1565.
The Knights of St. John had been driven out of the Holy Land when the Moslems captured Acre in 1291. They then settled on Cyprus, only to be driven from there a century and half later by the Ottoman Turks. After a few decades of wandering, Emperor Charles V of Spain gave Malta to the Knights, who were divided into eight groups corresponding to the areas they came from.
The Knights fortified the island against the Turks, whose next attack (previously mentioned) came in 1565. Though the Knights and the native Maltese population were vastly outnumbered by the Turks, they held them off until a relief force finally arrived from Sicily and forced the Turks to abandon the siege.
On the way to Valletta, we stopped off at the Mosta Rotunda, one of the largest unsupported domes in the world. During World War II, a 2,000-pound bomb had fallen through the Church roof but failed to explode and so did not destroy the church.
Valletta stood on the peninsula that the Turks had occupied, and it overlooked the great harbor of Malta, across which we could see the three peninsulas whose Maltese settlements and fortifications had been defended by the Knights. We took a boat ride all around the Valletta peninsula and got an upfront look at the Castle of St. Michael, which the Knights defended during the siege.
The island of Malta was a major fortress in the war with air bases built into caves and air raid shelters in many public buildings. The tourist picture of Malta envisions blue skies, sunny days, and sandy beaches, but the reality is a little different: Malta is very hilly and often the hills run down to the sea, so there are not nearly as many beaches as one would expect. Warm sunny days may characterize the summer, but not March with temperatures in the 50s and frequent stiff winds.
We did have beautiful blue skies, except for our first-day hike. The hike was supposedly five miles long, but one hiker’s pedometer was already showing five miles at about the halfway point, when her pedometer broke down. It was a damp, rainy day, although the rain wasn’t heavy and didn’t bother us very much.
We hiked along the shore for the most part, past a number of partly built (or partly demolished) hotels, whose presence showed the effect of the Covid recession and the cessation of development. It reminded Det and me of Montenegro, which had seen a similar abandonment of development after the Great Recession.
The Red Tower was rehabilitated in the 20th Century. It and the hotel are located at the north end of the island in the district (or parish, as labeled by the English) of Mellieħa. This district had been sparsely inhabited for centuries because if had a number of harbors where raiders could land and capture the inhabitants to be sold as slaves. The district had only been heavily settled after the British occupation.
The next day, we made a touring trip by bus to the current capital of Malta, Valletta, named after the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John (Hospitallers), a crusading order that defeated the Turks in the great siege of 1565.
The Knights of St. John had been driven out of the Holy Land when the Moslems captured Acre in 1291. They then settled on Cyprus, only to be driven from there a century and half later by the Ottoman Turks. After a few decades of wandering, Emperor Charles V of Spain gave Malta to the Knights, who were divided into eight groups corresponding to the areas they came from.
The Knights fortified the island against the Turks, whose next attack (previously mentioned) came in 1565. Though the Knights and the native Maltese population were vastly outnumbered by the Turks, they held them off until a relief force finally arrived from Sicily and forced the Turks to abandon the siege.
Valletta stood on the peninsula that the Turks had occupied, and it overlooked the great harbor of Malta, across which we could see the three peninsulas whose Maltese settlements and fortifications had been defended by the Knights. We took a boat ride all around the Valletta peninsula and got an upfront look at the Castle of St. Michael, which the Knights defended during the siege.
| Copyright © 2022 by James T. Carney, Detmar Straub |
Incredible history there, especially the siege! There is a great novel, actually now a trilogy, by Tim Willocks starting with "The Religion", that fictionalizes the players but sticks with the history. The ingenuity, ruthlessness, and utter brutality on both sides is a shocking tale. Many folks have no idea such a small island can be such an obstacle to travel. I've been on such an island, where to drive about 22 miles takes 2-3 hours. Constant switchbacks, precipitous cliffs, and one very disturbing place where you could get out of the car and see a car at the bottom of the cliff, crushed like a beer can, passengers included, which the government had been unable to recover for over a year. Watch your step! Great travelogue!
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteReally enjoying the story of Malta and your challenging trip. Hat's off to your intrepid energy and storytelling.