Valletta's Secret Underground History: Tours Now Open to The Public
by Melanie Zammit
The fascinating underworld of Valletta has been discovered, and tours of the labyrinthine tunnels have been organised by Heritage Malta. Booking one of these tours allows you to explore what lies beneath the 455-year-old city and to stitch together a fraction of Valletta's compelling underground history.
1. The History of This Subterranean World
The underground spaces that have been discovered underneath Valletta shed light on the engineering of the city itself and its vast architectural growth. Their origin can be traced back to the latter half of the 16th century when, in response to the attacks of the Ottoman Empire, the Knights of Malta carved tunnels into the rock and used them to store food and water underneath Malta's capital city.
2. The Battle for Supremacy of the Tunnels
Much like the Knights of Malta themselves, the Ottoman troops and their battle for the fort prompted them to dig tunnels underneath Valletta as well, leading to clashes in the subterranean underworld when one would carve a tunnel through the passageways of the other. Despite the expulsion of the Knights of Malta in 1798, the tunnels remained integral to the geography of Valletta and were used as shelters during World War II.
3. The Many Different Uses of the Passageways
The underground tunnels that are currently open to the public mainly consist of spaces that were used for sanitary facilities, wells and cisterns used to store water, and shelters used for refuge during World War II. The Knights of Malta also utilized the subterranean passageways for grain storage and military purposes. During the Great Siege of Malta, Valletta's underground labyrinth was crucial to the city's survival for two essential reasons: water supply and drainage systems.
4. Traditional Maltese Tiles
The last thing one might expect to find in Valletta's underworld is traditional Maltese tiles, but you'd be surprised to discover that, upon descending into its dark labyrinthine depths, these are exactly what pave the floors of a number of its shelters. The tiles might have been scavenged from bombed houses, leading one to believe that its inhabitants attempted to make the shelters as comfortable as possible during the war.
Religious ceramic pieces, small niches carved into the rock, and a number of drawings are still visible in the passageways, giving a sense of domesticity to the desolate spaces and reminding us of how defiant the Maltese have always been when faced with particularly difficult situations.
5. Book Your Guided Tour
Guided tours of this marvellous subterranean world are scheduled between 7th November and 29th December on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. Visit Heritage Malta's website, or the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta in order to book your ticket and to descend into this fascinating underworld.
