Although many speak Maltese at home, for most, the working
language is English. Aside from the fact that Valetta and the buildings of the
other towns are mostly made from local tan-golden sandstone, the urban
architecture resembles London’s Victorian Whitehall district, except for the
Ottoman Turkish influenced bay windows which look like what one would find in
some neighborhoods of Istanbul.
The Maltese drive
on the ‘British’ side of the road, and their ‘fusion’ food even has a touch
English fare, the blandness of which is corrected by North African spices and
Italian zest. As one walks down the streets of Valetta - and I say walk, as
much of the whole down town is a pedestrian mall - one sees many Rolex watches
and designer clothes. Malta is the Switzerland of the Mediterranean. Much money
is managed and changes hands in Malta.
To our regret, the
famous military museum in Valetta was closed due to renovations. We had wanted
to see the artifacts relating to the history of Malta, especially artifacts
associated with the Knights of Malta and their war with the Turks during the
sixteenth century. But we were able to spend some time in St. John’s
co-cathedral, 1573-78, the convention church of the Order of St. John which had
originated during the Crusades and from which the Knights of Malta had evolved.
The lavish early baroque interior, which contains tombs of Grand Masters of the
Order, has wonderful mosaics made from semi-precious stones from the whole area
of the Mediterranean.
During the last
part of our visit to the Maltese Islands, we were a able to have a half day
excursion to Gozo, the other larger Maltese island, which is altogether
agricultural and consists of little towns, fishing and farming villages, green
houses and fields
Though all of its
buildings seem to be constructed of the same tan-golden sandstone as the cities
on the larger island, the contrast to the main island of Malta is striking, as
Gozo is as rural as Malta is urban. When visiting the Maltese Museum of Art in
Valetta, we had noted that except for the ancient inhabitants of the island,
the Maltese had produced little art (again, think Switzerland!), but rural Gozo
proved to be the exception, as the contemporary pottery and glass made there is
exquisite both in design and texture. But what is most striking are the colors
- beautiful, blues, greens and yellows. We brought home gifts for relatives and
friends and a little vase for ourselves.
I just mentioned
above that the art of the ancient Maltese is exceptional as well. Here I was
referring to the Hagar Qim Temple and the ‘Hypogeum’. These ancient sites
date from 3600 to 3000 B.C.E.. The Hagar Qim temple is above ground and
consists of monoliths – single stones – resembling Stonehenge in southern
England, although these sites predate it, and, like the temples in England, no
one is quite sure how they set the stones in place. In contrast, to the above
ground temple, the Hypogeum, (Gr. = underground) a necropolis with vast
chambers carved out of living stone, is the reverse architecture of the
above-ground temples. It is the ‘dark’ version of the above ground temples
which are bathed in light. These vast chambers of the Hypogeum once housed the remains
of as many as seven thousand humans.
Malta is a
microcosmic version of our increasingly universalizing and homogenizing planet.
Malta, so it seems, is an older version of our world, and, alas, a version of
our future.
We were familiar with much of Italy but never had we been to Sicily, and because of its close proximity to Malta, it seemed that Sicily was the right place to go at the right time, and so, to Sicily we did go. I look forward to writing about what we saw and did there, as this will be the next installment.
We were familiar with much of Italy but never had we been to Sicily, and because of its close proximity to Malta, it seemed that Sicily was the right place to go at the right time, and so, to Sicily we did go. I look forward to writing about what we saw and did there, as this will be the next installment.
