City Europe
Valletta
Valletta is the capital of Malta, an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It is surrounded by walls and water.
Valletta is the capital of Malta. It was planned and built from 1566 by an order of knights, on a narrow peninsula between two harbors, with straight streets inside strong walls. UNESCO calls it one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world. Only about 5,200 people live in the city itself.
Founded in 1566 by the Knights Hospitaller after the siege of 1565, Valletta was laid out as a single late-Renaissance creation: a grid of streets inside bastioned walls on the Sciberras peninsula. Its 320 monuments in 55 ha have been a World Heritage Site since 1980. Malta's statistics office estimated 5,197 residents at the end of 2024.
Photo: Bengt Nyman, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Valletta
Valletta is the capital city of Malta. Malta is a country made of islands in the sea.
Valletta is small too. Only about 5,000 people live there.
Valletta is the capital of Malta, an island country in the Mediterranean. UNESCO describes it as a fortified city on a hilly peninsula between two harbors that it calls among the finest natural harbors in the Mediterranean.
The city itself is small: Malta's National Statistics Office estimated 5,197 residents at the end of 2024, fewer than the 9,340 counted in 1985. Many more people live in the towns around the harbors.
City Population's tables from Malta's National Statistics Office give the locality of Valletta 9,340 people in 1985, 7,262 in 1995, 6,300 in 2005, 5,748 in 2011, 5,157 in 2021 and an estimated 5,197 on 31 December 2024. Malta as a whole had an estimated 574,250.
Universalis says the urban area around the north-coast harbors, which includes the capital, held about half of the island's population, nearly 200,000 people, at the start of the 21st century.
- Country
- Malta (its capital)
- People in Valletta (estimate, 31 December 2024)
- 5,197
- People in the 1985 census
- 9,340
- Founded
- 1566
A city of 320 monuments
Valletta has more than 300 old buildings packed close together.
There are palaces, churches, a library and an old theater.
UNESCO lists 320 monuments in an area of just 55 hectares, which makes Valletta, in its words, one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world. They include the palace of the order's leaders, the Grandmaster's Palace, the order's auberges, churches, a library and the Manoel Theatre.
The whole city has been a World Heritage Site since 1980.
UNESCO's statement lists 16th-century buildings from the city's founding, including the cathedral of St John, the Palace of the Grand Master, the Auberges de Castile et Léon, de Provence, d'Italie and d'Aragon and the Infirmary, and 18th-century additions such as the Auberge de Bavière, the Library and the Manoel Theatre. Wikidata dates the Grandmaster's Palace to 1574 and the Manoel Theatre to 1732.
Universalis lists eighteen churches, twenty palaces and about ten civic buildings raised in the Baroque style between the late 16th century and 1798.
- City of Valletta
- UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980
- Monuments
- 320, within an area of 55 ha
- Grandmaster's Palace
- 1574 (Wikidata)
A city planned all at once
Long ago, a group of knights built Valletta all at once, following one big plan.
They made straight streets and put walls all around.
Before Valletta, Malta was ruled in turn by Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs. In 1530 an order of knights, the Hospitallers, chose the harbors on Malta's north coast for their fleet.
After a great siege in 1565, the knights founded a new city in 1566. With the help of leading military engineers, they planned it all at once, as a grid of straight streets inside strong walls with bastions. The order kept the city for about two and a half centuries.
UNESCO says the siege of 1565 'captured the European imagination' and gathered the resources to create the new city, founded in 1566 and planned by the knights and Europe's most respected 16th-century military engineers as 'a single, holistic creation of the late Renaissance', with a uniform grid inside bastioned walls. Universalis describes an ellipse of about 50 hectares on the Sciberras peninsula, with stepped, sloping streets and a wide main street from a fort by the sea to the main gate.
After 1800, Universalis says, the British modernized the defenses with forts farther out and turned some old bastions into gardens.
- Founded by
- the order of knights known as the Hospitallers
- Founded
- 1566, soon after the siege of 1565
- Knights' rule of the city
- about two and a half centuries
Stepped streets and two harbors
Valletta has water on almost every side.
Some of its streets are so steep that they have steps!
Valletta stands on a narrow peninsula with water all around it, between two harbors. Its streets run straight in a grid. The peninsula is hilly, and many streets slope and have steps.
A wide main street runs through the middle of the city from the main gate to a fort by the sea, dividing it in two.
UNESCO notes that the city is built on a narrow peninsula surrounded by water, so its perimeter has stayed largely unchanged since the knights left. Universalis describes its orthogonal streets, its sloping streets with steps, and a wide main axis from a fort by the sea to the main gate in the southwest that divides the city into two halves, each with its own important street.
The hero photo, in Commons' category of Marsamxett Harbour, looks across the water at the city's walls and skyline.
- Site
- a narrow peninsula surrounded by water
- Streets
- a straight grid; many slope and have steps
- Harbors
- one on each side of the peninsula
Hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters
Summers in Malta are hot and very dry. Winters are mild and rainy.
In July it hardly rains at all.
The World Meteorological Organization's averages for Luqa, on Malta, show daytime highs of about 31 °C in July and August and about 15 °C in January. January nights average about 9 °C.
About 553 millimeters of rain fall in an average year, mostly from October to February. July is almost completely dry.
The WMO table for Luqa, 1961–1990, gives average highs from 15.2 °C in January to 30.7 °C in July and August, and average lows from 9.2 °C in January to 21.8 °C in August.
The monthly rainfall averages add up to about 553.3 mm a year, on about 84 days with 0.1 mm or more. December is wettest (112.3 mm), and June to August together bring only 10.6 mm, with July lowest (0.4 mm).
- July and August, average high (WMO, Luqa, 1961–1990)
- 30.7 °C
- January, average low (same period)
- 9.2 °C
- Rain in a year (sum of the monthly averages)
- about 553 mm
A living capital
Valletta has an old theater and an old garden.
About 5,000 people still live in the old city.
Valletta is still Malta's capital. The Manoel Theatre dates from 1732, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens from 1661, according to Wikidata.
Universalis says that after 1945 the city was rebuilt, and that tourism became important for the harbor area in the second half of the 20th century.
UNESCO's criterion (i) praises Valletta as 'an ideal creation of the late Renaissance' with a uniform plan, walls modeled around the natural site and great monuments set in well-chosen places; criterion (vi) ties the city to the history of the order that founded it.
Universalis traces 20th-century change around the Grand Harbour: industry and airfields in the first half, then rebuilding after 1945, new suburbs, a denser road network and tourist development.
- Manoel Theatre
- 1732 (Wikidata)
- Upper Barrakka Gardens
- 1661 (Wikidata)
- UNESCO criteria
- (i) and (vi)
Valletta on the map
Find the Mediterranean Sea on the globe. South of Italy are some small islands. That is Malta, and Valletta is its capital!
The city sits on a thin strip of land between two harbors.
Valletta is on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean, at about 36° north, on a peninsula of Malta's north coast.
Measured from the Grandmaster's Palace, the Manoel Theatre is about 0.2 kilometers to the northwest and the Upper Barrakka Gardens about 0.5 kilometers to the south-southwest.
Valletta lies at about 35.9° N and 14.5° E. Measured from the Grandmaster's Palace (Wikidata points), the Manoel Theatre is about 0.16 km northwest and the Upper Barrakka Gardens about 0.47 km south-southwest.
The hero photo was taken on 11 September 2010 at 11:37 by the camera's clock, about 0.57 km west-northwest of the palace and 3 m above sea level (Commons camera data), across Marsamxett Harbour.
- Latitude
- about 35.9° north
- Longitude
- about 14.5° east
- Grandmaster's Palace to the Upper Barrakka Gardens
- about 0.5 km south-southwest
Amazing facts
-
Valletta has 320 old monuments squeezed into a very small space!
UNESCO lists 320 monuments within just 55 hectares, one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world.
UNESCO's description: 'Valletta's 320 monuments, all within an area of 55 ha, make it one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world.'
-
Valletta was planned all at once, like a drawing on paper.
The knights planned Valletta as one whole design, with a grid of streets inside its walls.
UNESCO calls Valletta 'a single, holistic creation of the late Renaissance, with a uniform grid plan within fortified and bastioned city walls'.
-
Fewer people live in Valletta now than 40 years ago.
Valletta had 9,340 people in 1985 and an estimated 5,197 at the end of 2024.
Malta's census and estimates show Valletta falling from 9,340 (1985) to 5,157 (2021), then 5,197 (estimate, end of 2024).
-
In July, it hardly ever rains in Malta.
July at Luqa averages less than half a millimeter of rain.
In the WMO's 1961–1990 averages for Luqa, July brings 0.4 mm of rain and December 112.3 mm.
Words to know
- capital
- the city where a country's government is based
- peninsula
- a piece of land with water on almost every side
- bastion
- a part of a fortress wall that sticks out, so defenders can see along the wall
- knight
- a warrior of noble rank in the Middle Ages and later
- Renaissance
- a time in Europe, about 1400 to 1600, of new ideas in art, building and learning
- grid plan
- a town layout of straight streets crossing at right angles
Discovery challenge
-
Valletta is the capital of which country?
Valletta is the capital of which island country?
Valletta, founded in 1566, is the capital of which Mediterranean country?
- Cyprus
- Malta
- Greece
Show the answer
Malta
Malta!
Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea.
Malta.
-
Who built Valletta long ago?
Who founded Valletta in 1566?
Which order founded Valletta and kept it for about two and a half centuries?
- An order of knights
- A group of farmers
- Sailors from Japan
Show the answer
An order of knights
Knights!
An order of knights, the Hospitallers.
The knights of the order known as the Hospitallers.
-
How many old monuments does Valletta have?
How many monuments does UNESCO list in Valletta?
How many monuments does UNESCO list within Valletta's 55 hectares?
- 32
- 320
- 3,200
Show the answer
320
320!
320 monuments.
320.
-
What do some streets in Valletta have?
What kind of land is Valletta built on, with streets that slope and have steps?
Universalis describes Valletta's sloping streets with steps; what kind of site did UNESCO say the city was built on?
- A hilly peninsula
- A flat plain
- A valley far from the sea
Show the answer
A hilly peninsula
Hilly land by the sea, with steps in the streets!
The city is built on a hilly peninsula.
A hilly peninsula between two harbors.
-
Which month is the driest in Malta?
Which month brings the least rain at Luqa, Malta?
In the WMO's 1961–1990 averages for Luqa, which month gets only 0.4 mm of rain?
- December
- July
- March
Show the answer
July
July, in summer!
July. December is the wettest.
July (0.4 mm); December is the wettest (112.3 mm).
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Malta and Valletta in the Mediterranean Sea.
- Describe a planned city with a grid of streets inside walls.
- Explain why a capital city can have only a few thousand residents.
- Read a Mediterranean pattern of dry summers and wet winters.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Valletta was planned all at once instead of growing slowly. What are the good and bad sides of planning a whole city at once?
- Only about 5,000 people live in Valletta, but it is still the capital. Where might the people who work there live?
- Why might a city built for defense have water on almost every side?
Try at home or in class
- Grid city: draw a peninsula and lay out straight streets in a grid, with walls around the edge.
- Rain chart: plot Luqa's monthly rainfall and color the dry summer months.
- Shrinking town: make a bar chart of Valletta's population from 1985 to 2024.
Key vocabulary: capital, peninsula, bastion, knight, Renaissance, grid plan
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Malta: districts and localities (censuses 1985–2021, estimate 2024) , City Population (Thomas Brinkhoff), from the National Statistics Office, Malta
- City of Valletta , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- La Valette , Encyclopaedia Universalis (Pierre-Yves Péchoux)
- World Weather Information Service: Luqa, Malta climatological information , World Meteorological Organization
- File:Malta, 2010 - panoramio - Bengt Nyman (23).jpg (Bengt Nyman, 11 September 2010) , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.