La Valletta
All information about La Valletta Cruise Port. Timetable for the arrival of ships, the time of their stay and the number of passengers. La Valletta Port news. Weather forecast and historical weather, as well as water temperatures around La Valletta.
La Valletta: tourist information
If you've ever wondered what sort of prize you'd get for saving Europe, look no further than Valletta. Named after La Valette, the Grandmaster who masterminded Malta's successful stand against the Turkish siege of 1565, Valletta became the city of the Knights of the Order of St John and the seat of Malta's government. While travelling through the Mediterranean, Sir Walter Scott described Valletta as 'the city built by gentlemen for gentlemen'. Today it's a beautifully preserved 16th-century walled city, small enough to cover in a few hours without sweating too much in the Mediterranean sun. In fact, the streets were carefully laid out to channel cool breezes in from the harbour.
Situated on the northeast coast of Malta, Valletta is the capital, and is built on the promontory of Mount Sciberras which juts out into the middle of a bay. This dissects the bay into two deep harbours: the Grand Harbour to the east and the Marsamxett to the west. Valletta is a rough rectangle at the tip of a peninsula on the coast, just a few hundred metres across in either direction and thus surrounded by water on its northern, eastern and southern sides.
The city was named after Jean Parisot de la Valette who was the Grand Master of the Order of the Knight Hospitallers (Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem). This famed religious order of hospitallers was founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century and made their base in Malta after they were expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman Turks. During the time of Grand Master La Valette, in 1565, the Knights and the Maltese managed to suppress a siege on the island by the forces of Süleyman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in what was to become known as one of history's greatest sieges.
Following the siege, the building of the city began in the same year 1565 in order to create a base for the defence of the island. Although Grand Master La Valette managed to lay the first stone, he died before its completion. Most of the embellishments of Valletta were done during the time of Grand Master La Cassiere, especially the magnificent St John's Co-Cathedral. The reign of the Knights of St John eventually came to an end with the successful invasion by Napoleon who occupied Malta on his way to Egypt. A Maltese revolt against the French garrison was the catalyst for the occupation of Valletta by the British in 1800. Valetta is also the spot where the Italian fleet surrendered to the Allies in 1943.
Valletta's network of streets is laid out in an orthogonal grid dominated by a main artery which crosses the length of the entire city and opens up into a series of squares at its geometric centre, around the Palace of the Grand Masters. The city architecture is inspired by Italian Renaissance planning principles, and served as an early model of urban design. Valletta is one of the most important planned towns of the Renaissance. It equals in its noble architecture, any capital in Europe, while its timeless beauty and artistic treasures make it a well-deserved World Heritage site.
There are a number of superb museums here as well as historical sites that are worth visiting. The main thoroughfare in the city is Republic Street. You'll find all the main shops and character-filled side streets leading off from here. For those interested in shopping, Merchant's Street and Lucia Street are the places to go for the most interesting merchandise. Lucia Street is famous for the exquisite silver and gold filigree jewellery sold there. Merchant Street specializes in souvenirs and is also home to a large open market.
Location
La Valletta Cruise Port Schedule
La Valletta in the News
- Oct 8, 2022
MSC Cruises Winter 2022-2023 Deployment Breakdown MSC Cruises is planning a record-breaking winter season in 2022-2023. With the debut of two newbu... - Sep 28, 2022
Carnival Cruise Line Announces Protocol Changes for Two Ships Carnival Cruise Line has announced new protocols for guests sailing on cruises that call in Greec... - Jun 6, 2022
Entire Seabourn Fleet Back as Sojourn Restarts in Greece The Seabourn Sojourn is resuming service today, marking the return of the entire Sea... - Jun 7, 2022
Cruise Restart: 21 Additional Ships Resuming Service in June While several cruise lines now have their entire fleets back in service, more vessels continue to... - Feb 21, 2022
Norwegian Restart Update: Three Ships Returning in March With a total of ten cruise ships now back in service, Norwegian Cruise Line plans to add three mo... - Jan 29, 2022
New Norwegian Viva to Spend Inaugural Season in the Mediterranean Entering service for Norwegian Cruise Line in 2023, the new Norwegian Viva is debuting with a pro... - Jan 14, 2022
Rest of Norwegian Cruise Line Fleet Set For Staggered Return As a result of the continued impact of the pandemic, Norwegian Cruise Line recently revealed new ...
Port rating and occupancy
Port of La Valletta ranks 53th in the world in terms of the number of tourists visiting it.
Number of cruise ship calls in the coming year: 232.
The total number of tourists (passengers) of cruise ships in the port of La Valletta in the next 12 months is 788476.
According to the popularity rating among more than 1,000 cruise ports in the world, La Valletta ranks 204.
Weather in La Valletta
Current water temperature in La Valletta now is 62°F (16.4°C)
Water temperature data provided by seatemperature.net.
Annual Weather