MALTA'S MOMENT

By leaning into its past, the tiny Mediterranean island is shining a light on its future

- ADAM GRAHAM

The ruins of the Royal Opera House, now an openair theater, and Malta's Parliament House, near the City Gate; the view of Valletta across Marsamxett Harbour

MY VIEW FROM VALLETTA'S monumental, austere City Gate is a master class in palimpsestic architecture. Plunging below me are the 16th-century walls that snake around the city's fortified harbor, while the rest of the scene is crowded with Corinthian columns, Art Deco friezes, and a 1950s Triton fountain, a reminder of the city's maritime heritage. The distant hills are topped with Baroque churches and home to the ruins of prehistoric megalithic temples, dating as far back as 3600 BCE. Like so many islands in the neighborhood, Malta carries the mark of numerous occupying powers, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, French, and British, who ruled from 1813 until 1964. In 1980, UNESCO named the country's tiny capital a World Heritage Site, describing it as “one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world” with some 320 monuments crammed into 136 acres. But in contrast to the chaos of many nearby Mediterranean port cities, there's a quiet order here: the legacy of the Knights Templar, who occupied and reinforced the city and much of the island in 1530 in the aftermath of the Crusades.