Underground Valletta

What makes it special

The oldest part of the route is the tunnels the Knights dug for their new city on Mount Sciberras. They carried its drainage, and the wells and cisterns beside them stored its water, while other chambers held grain and military stores.

One chamber is a huge 16th-century cistern built by the Knights of St John, cut into the limestone under the city.

The rest of the walk is the wartime shelters, carved out by widening the older tunnels and cisterns into a dense network. Residents who stayed in the capital came down here whenever the air raid alarm sounded.

Some families lived below for extended periods. Inside the shelters they made private rooms and even chapels out of the bare rock.

Visiting

Thirty minutes before your tour time, the group gathers at MUŻA, the national art museum in the Auberge d'Italie. The museum stands at the very top of Merchants Street, at the Castille Square end, and the half hour covers arrival and a briefing.

From MUŻA the guide walks the group to the entrance of the underground site, less than five minutes away.

Below, the guide leads the group the whole way, through the Knights' drainage tunnels and water cisterns and on into the wartime shelters.

Tips

Coming by bus, MUŻA is a five-minute walk from the Valletta bus terminus.

Underground Valletta shows how civilians lived through the raids. For where the island's defence was run, add the Lascaris War Rooms, the Second World War command centre beneath the Upper Barrakka Gardens.