You get Malta's largest bell, hung in an open colonnade on a bastion above the Grand Harbour, and a reflective stop where the island remembers its Second World War siege.
Monument, Valletta. Meridian Dispatch.
Entry is free: it is an open-air memorial with no ticket to buy. Heritage Malta can close the site for a time while restoration works run.
It used to toll every day at noon in remembrance of the war dead, until the structure needed urgent restoration. Heritage Malta has not announced a date for the noon toll to return.
Not fully. The path from Lower Barrakka Gardens is relatively flat and paved, but there are some steps on the way, so a wheelchair may need help.
The memorial is a colonnaded belfry built in the form of an elliptical neo-classical temple. It sits on the lower part of St Christopher's Bastion. Inside hangs a heavy bronze bourdon bell, embellished with an image of the Madonna in flame.
In front of the bell lies the bronze sculpture of the Unknown Soldier, which honours a soldier buried at sea.
The memorial is a tribute to the more than 7,000 lives lost in Malta during the Second World War.
The belfry stands on an open first floor above an enclosed lower level. From that level the view takes in the port, the fortifications around it and the Three Cities beyond.
Begin in Lower Barrakka Gardens, which has public toilets.
Walk across to the memorial and look at the bell under its colonnade, then at the Unknown Soldier lying in front of it. While restoration work runs, new perimeter railings may keep you back from parts of the structure.
Benches and viewing areas sit close by if you want to stay a while. Then walk on to Fort St Elmo, since the memorial makes a natural stop on the way there.
If your trip falls in April, look up the date of the annual ceremony commemorating the award of the George Cross to Malta. It has been held at the memorial in April, on a date set each year, so build your Valletta day around it once the date is out.
Stay in Valletta and two harbours are a short walk from your bed: the Barrakka Lift takes you down to the Grand Harbour for the ferry to the Three Cities, and on the other side of the city the Sliema ferry crosses Marsamxett.
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