évasion
fly away
ّ
لنحـلــق
Une des artères principales de
La Valette, Old Backery street.
Photo David Pisani I One of
the main arteries in Valletta,
Old Backery street. Photo
David Pisani I
،أحد أهم شوارع العاصمة فاليتا
.""أولد باكريي سرتيـت
I صــور ديفيـد بيزانـي
visite guidée I guided tour I
زيـارة برفقة دليـل
Midway between Tunisia and the Sicilian lands is the small
island of Malta. Pearl of the Mediterranean, Malta was,
during numerous centuries, the object of desires and the subject
of civilizational wars. Its capital, La Valette, still has almost
intact marks of this past and is nowadays designated as the
highest concentration of historical monuments in the world.
l
a Valette owes its name to Jean
Parisot de la Valette, great master of
the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem,
who ended the Ottoman siege and
laid the first stone of the future capital
at the beginning of the 16th century.
Thereafter, Malta was first owned
by Bonaparte, then became a British colony before
gaining its independence in 1964.
At the crossroads of
civilizations
Absolutely everything in La Valette testify to this
cultural richness, beginning with the national
language, the Maltese, surprisingly mingling Sicilian
Arabic, Italian and to a lesser extent French and
English.
The golden city made of limestone is also filled with
architectural splendours and artistic treasures. Built
according to the plans of Francesco Laparelli,
Michelangelo’s former assistant, La Valette was a
strategically strong place which purpose was to
counter a new Ottoman invasion. The Grand-Master
Palace, erected during the 16th century by the Order
of Saint John of Jerusalem and nowadays the
President’s residence, is still a must of the Maltese
architecture.
A human-sized capital
La Gazelle 57 I
194
Designated as the smaller capital in Europe, La Valette
is best visited on foot. But before wandering along the
streets, one should disc