Fortification Tour

A visit of Valletta will be incomplete without a tour of its fortifications. Here follows a suggested walk around the city's fortified perimeter.

Start the tour outside City Gate. Observe the deep ditches and enormous bastions on either side of the gate. Proceed on the Marsamxett side and down Great Siege Road. St. Michael's Bastion rises at the extreme western point of Valletta; then St. Andrew's Bastion, where the walls attain their highest altitude. Proceed to the Valletta Water Polo Pitch and look up at St. Salvatore Bastion, then walk on beneath the German Curtain, and St. Sebastion's Bastion. The walls here turn at a right angle to form the English Curtain. Further eastward, there is the French Curtain adjoining Fort St. Elmo. This Fort is embraced by St. Gregory's Bastion, Alexander Ball Bastion and the Abercrombie's Curtain - these are not normally accessible to visitors.

Outside St. Elmo, the ramparts proceed southward starting with St. Lazarus Curtain, St. Christopher Bastion, St. Lucy Curtain, St Barbara Bastion and Liesse Curtain. The Lascaris Counterguard forms an angle with St. Peter and Paul Bastion on which the Upper Barracca Garden is located.

St. Peter and St. James Curtains join with St. John Bastion, followed by St. John Curtain which completes the full circle of Valletta's fortifications.

A glance at St. John's and St. James' massive Cavalier Towers, rounds up the tour of this sturdy defensive belt which girds the City of the Knights.