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Museums & Galleries in Valletta
Malta's fortified capital, a UNESCO World Heritage city built by the Knights of St John after the Great Siege of 1565 on a peninsula between two harbours. Barely a square kilometre, its grid of Baroque streets holds palaces, churches and the national art and archaeology collections.
Why here
Valletta is one of the most concentrated historic capitals in Europe, an entire UNESCO-listed city built by the Knights of St John in the decades after the Great Siege of 1565, and its museums sit within a few minutes' walk of each other. The centrepiece is St John's Co-Cathedral, whose austere facade hides an interior of gilded Baroque carving, a marble floor of knights' tombs, and Caravaggio's vast Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the only painting the artist ever signed. A short walk away, MUZA, the national art museum, traces Maltese and Mediterranean art from the Order's patronage to the present inside a restored 16th-century auberge. Between them the city holds the Grand Master's Palace, the national archaeology museum and the underground war rooms, enough to fill several unhurried days without taking a bus.
Best months
Valletta's museums are open year round and sit within a compact, walkable grid, with most running daily or closing one weekday, so check current hours. St John's Co-Cathedral closes on Sundays and public holidays and is busiest mid-morning with cruise groups. The stone streets are steep in places and shadeless at midday in summer, so mornings and the cooler months are the most comfortable time to walk between sites.
Getting there & around
Valletta is a 20-minute drive or bus ride from the airport and the main resort towns, and a short ferry from Sliema and the Three Cities across its harbours. The peninsula is largely pedestrian, so park at the entrance or arrive by bus and explore on foot. St John's Co-Cathedral charges a set admission that includes an audio guide, and the state museums under Heritage Malta sell single or combined tickets.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
MUZA National Museum of Art
OrganizerMalta's national museum of art, opened in 2018 in the Auberge d'Italie, the 16th-century Valletta residence of the Order's Italian knights. Run by Heritage Malta, the national heritage agency, it presents the national art collection through four themes, Mediterranean, Europe, Empire and the Artist, tracing works from the Knights' patronage to contemporary Maltese art. The restored auberge also houses a courtyard cafe and event spaces and sits a short walk from St John's Co-Cathedral.
St John's Co-Cathedral
OrganizerThe conventual church of the Order of St John, built in Valletta between 1573 and 1577 to a design by the architect Girolamo Cassar. Its plain exterior gives way to one of Europe's finest Baroque interiors, its vault painted by Mattia Preti in the 1660s and its floor paved with the marble tombstones of the knights. The oratory holds Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John the Baptist of 1608, the artist's largest canvas and the only work he signed. Run by the St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation.