Unlike the gate-less entry to the walled city of Valletta, Città Vittoriosa still boasts of its majestic three-gate bent entrance to the city, the only such military stratagem still surviving in Europe, spearheaded by its Advanced Gate, also known as the Gate of Aragon, designed by the great French engineer Charles François de Mondion in 1722.

The Gate of Aragon, designed by the great military French engineer Charles François de Mondion in 1722. It is the first of the unique three-gate bent entrance to the walled city.

It is built outside the deep city ditch that girdles the land front from Dockyard Creek (formerly Porto delle Galere) to Kalkara Creek (formerly known as Porto della Infermeria), dominated by the imposing lofty cavaliers of St James and St John, all recently beautifully restored by Heritage Malta.

As visitors cross the bridge to Couvre Porte a sense of history engulfs them, resulting in deep nostalgia as they face the third gate, the Main Gate (Porta Maggiore), also known as Gate of Provence, festooned with the biblical insccription Obumbrasti Super Caput Meum im die Belli (‘You have protected me in times of war’), recording divine intervention in the Great Siege of 1565. The unique sensation of the three-gate entrance confirms Vittoriosa’s European ethos, which should be better appreciated.

In the Late Middle Ages, the thriving city of Vittoriosa, mainly engaged in maritime activities, including corsairing, was further enhanced by a merchant and seafaring community that made its home in this city, whose long tradition of mercantile activities, including galley building, dates back to 1247. In fact, a Venetian document referred to “il tarsenale di Malta”, as the building of galleys in Vittoriosa was well known.

The Inquisitors’ Palace, the only surviving Inquisitorial palace in Europe. The Gothic quadripartite vaulting adds mystery to the sordid events associated with the Inquisition.

The ancient part of the city, known as Il Collachio, portrayed in microcosm a broad swathe of influences in an active, prosperous port city of the period, with its taverns, brothels, slaves and dreaded corsairs operating parallel with a proliferation of churches, chapels and holy relics. Its narrow, winding streets have witnessed scenes of rowdy mirth, like the frivolities of the first-ever carnival held in Malta; they have hosted splendid ceremonies, such as when on November 1 every year a rep­re­sentative of the King of Spain was given a Maltese falcon as in the deed of cessation of the islands; in them were heard delirious cries of delight and singing of hymns as soon as it became known that the Gran Soccorso had landed on the island on September 7, 1565, followed by celebrations of vic­tory; but they have also seen episodes of humiliating poverty and death, as when the plague struck in 1592.

Down the years the Collachio has been visited by outstanding personalities, scholars, poets, troubadours and musi­cians, as well as great military engineers, like the famous Bartolomeo Genga of Urbino, who was commissioned to draw up the first design of a new city, as well as the outstanding Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, whose Vittoriosa inspiration projected him to the highest honour in the building of Valletta.

That such a small walled city can offer so much history and culture reveals the richness of its past, when on many occasions Vittoriosa has been the major protagonist in the fabulous history of the Maltese islands

A few years ago I re-explored this historic district with Tim Willocks, author of the blockbuster The Religion, an outstanding novel about the Great Siege, and a kaleidoscope of colourful memories rushed to my mind as I felt the radical temper and vitality of this vibrant city and its humble populace still rooted to its glorious past.

A treasure trove awaits the discerning visitor on a pilgrimage to Vittoriosa, not least to discover and pay homage to the city’s European roots. That such a small walled city can offer so much history and culture reveals the richness of its past, when on many occasions Vittoriosa has been the major protagonist in the fabulous history of the Maltese islands.

The processional statue of St Lawrence on the walnut and ebony platform made by skilled Vittoriosa craftsmen.

On the periphery of the Collachio, standing majestically on the main processional route leading to the city’s historic piazza, we find the notorious Inquisitors’ Palace, the only edifice of its kind still surviving in the whole of Europe. Its unique Gothic quadripartite vaults spread terror at a time when Vittoriosa hosted the island’s three major institutions, namely the Order of St John, with the various langues’ decorative palaces, the bishop in his ornate palace, and the Inquisitor.

Memories of so many sordid events are evoked as one visits the Inquisitors’ Palace, as when Augustinian friar Franceso Gesualdo was burnt at the stake in the Vittoriosa piazza for his Lutheran beliefs, or the burning of the effigy of Mattew Falzon at the Dominican church of Il-Lunzjata across the road, an evident miscarriage of justice immortalised by the social reformer and medical researcher Agostino Levanzin in his novel Is-Saħħaar Falzun (The Wizard Falzun).

The historic Marina Grande enjoys palatial splendor, such as Scamp Palace (formerly the Casino di Venezia) built by Lorenzo Gafà, now the National Mari­time Museum. On the exact site, since time immemorial, there was a famous galley building yard that built the Santa Caterina for the Order of St John.

The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary by Emanuel Vincent Cremona, the main altarpiece of Il-Lunzjata.

This facility, together with the navi­gational skills and bravery of the Vittoriosa corsairs in armed combat on the high seas, were the deciding factors when the knights opted to settle in Vittoriosa in 1530. Today this historical marina is rated as one of the most elegant in the whole Mediterranean basin.

Along the years, the skilled crafts­men of the galley arsenal in their bottegas produced artistic works for Vittoriosa’s many churches, particu­larly for the parish church of St Law­rence, where magnificent work­man­ship in sculpture is evidenced in the artistic inlaid walnut pulpit, the exquisite design of the organ loft, the walnut and ebony platform for the processional statue of St Lawrence as well as the old baptismal font. These are all sculptural gems of unsurpassed sophistication.

The Greek community in Vittoriosa, especially the hundreds of Rhodiots who accompanied the Knights to their new convent, contributed substantially to the artistic heritage of the city. It is well recorded that many of them commissioned various paintings from the artists who had settled in Vittoriosa, attracted by the Knights’ munificence and artistic flair.

One such painter was Girolamo Spagnuolo, whose Candlemas Madonna adorns the nunnery of Santa Scolastica, housed in the former Sacra Infermeria, the Knights’ first hospital on the island built in 1533. On August 8, 1546, Spagnuolo was requested by Francesco Mego, a highly-placed Rhodiot adminis­trator, to paint a triptych representing Mary Magdalen, flanked by St Joseph and St Francis, for the Dominican church of the Annunciation (still known as Il-Lunzjata), which during the Knights’ sojourn in Vittoriosa became the parish church of the city.

The Holy Family with St Anne at the nunnery of Santa Scolastica, considered as one of Mattia Preti’s most outstanding works.

Other precious paintings at Il-Lunzjata, particularly masterpieces by Lazzaro Pisani, Giuseppe Calì and the Italian Gian Battista Conti, perished in the German blitz of 1941-42. The rebuilt church of Il-Lunzjata now possesses two of the most important paintings of Emvin Cremona – the altarpiece of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin and the Madonna of the Rosary at the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

The nunnery church of the cloistered nuns of Santa Scolastica harbours a Mattia Preti masterpiece, the main altar painting of the Holy Family with saints Anne, Jerome, Benedict, Scolastica and Archangel Raphael, an impressive painting which ranks among Preti’s most outstanding works. History of Art professor Mario Buhagiar finds this beautiful painting “remarkable for its classical sense of equilibrium”. He also highlights its “chromatic harmonies, the supple firmly modelled figures”. It deserves to be better known and appreciated.

Prof. Giovanni Bonello, a renowned connoisseur of the arts, remarks that a city possessing such a masterpiece is already well out of the cultural desert. “In fact,” states Prof. Bonello, “had Vittoriosa no other claim to artistic fame, this virtually unknown painting would place it among the foremost artistic in the Maltese archipelago.”

The inclusion of Vittoriosa when Valletta is crowned as European City of Culture will surely add glamour and sophistication to the celebrations be­cause the old maritime city was a fount of cultural inspiration throughout history.

Lino Bugeja is author of Vittoriosa – Ancient City of Culture.